James Allison on the 'freakish nature of the gifts' that helps Lewis Hamilton stay competitive at such an advanced age

According to Mercedes technical director James Allison, one of the major reasons why Lewis Hamilton has been successful at an advanced age is the freaky nature of the gifts he has.

The Mercedes driver is still an asset as he nears 40. Hamilton is the second-oldest driver on the F1 grid right now but is still performing at a very high level. When asked about Hamilton's sustained longevity in the sport, Allison said,

"I think in the case of Lewis … I haven’t worked with Fernando for a bit, but I can speak for Lewis, I guess. The main thing I put it down to isn't the sport or the way the sport has gone but just the slightly freakish nature of the gifts that Lewis was handed."

He added about Alonso, 41:

"He is dedicated in the way that Tom described Fernando being, self-criticalnand still able to pedal the car like a young ma n. So I think that's more to do with the two end visuals than it is to do with the sport."

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Lewis Hamilton's car issues in Baku explained

In a recent Mercedes debrief video, chief technical officer Mike Elliot explained what were the things that went wrong with Lewis Hamilton's car in Baku.

After the race, there was an impression that the car underperformed to an extent, and maybe the potential was there to achieve a bit more. Talking about the issues, Elliot said,

“You’ve only got one one-hour session of FP1 to get the car right. And that’s on a circuit that’s been resurfaced, so how the tyres are going to work and interact with that surface is different to what we might have expected.

"So we turned up having a setup we were going to try with Lewis and a setup we were going to try with George, and in actual fact what happened to us is we had an issue with Lewis’ car getting it out of the garage on time, because of a parameter in the car."

He added:

“And as a consequence of that it made it very difficult to compare those two setups. I think in hindsight, we’re still not convinced of whether we made the right choice or didn’t make the right choice.

"It’s the same for everybody. Everybody’s got that same format to deal with, everybody’s got that same challenge of one hour to deal with.”

As a result, Lewis Hamilton could not repeat his podium-scoring feat of Australia and had to settle for a somewhat middling result.