Former team manager and Formula 1 journalist Peter Windsor can understand why Lewis Hamilton still remains loyal to Mercedes. According to Windsor, the seven-time world champion knows all too well that his place with the German racing stable will be the only option if he still wants to have a chance at a possible eighth title, because there is no room for him among the competing teams. Yet the Formula 1 journalist saw that he is not doing so bad at Mercedes.
Hamilton and Mercedes were the golden combination of Formula 1 for many years. Since the arrival of the hybrid era in 2014, the German racing team has won no fewer than eight constructors’ titles, and Hamilton won six of his seven world titles behind the wheel of the Mercedes car. However, in 2021 the long-awaited coup de grace finally came, because in 2021 Red Bull Racing together with Max Verstappen suddenly showed that, for the first time since 2013, they had a serious chance in the battle for the titles. The rest is now history: Verstappen drove brilliantly in 2023 in the most dominant season in the history of the sport, but Mercedes was left desperate in an attempt to keep up with the Austrian racing team. It didn’t really work out, but despite all the setbacks, Hamilton remains loyal to the team for the time being.
No room for Hamilton among the competition
However, Windsor expressed in a live chat on his YouTube channel that he does not find this a strange choice at all by the seven-time world champion. ‘He remains very loyal,’ noted the Formula 1 journalist, ‘although the question remains whether that is the wise choice. But I think we should mainly imagine how he looks at the situation.’ According to Windsor, there are currently few alternative options that Hamilton can consider if he were to think about a possible switch. ‘If you look at it from his perspective you quickly discover that he has few options. Because where can he go if he does not remain loyal to Mercedes and therefore makes a switch?’
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The Formula 1 journalist expects that Hamilton himself also realizes that there will simply be no room for him among the biggest rivals, who also have the best credentials to fight for the titles. ‘He can’t go to Red Bull, because there is simply no room for him there. They are definitely not going to put him as a teammate next to Verstappen. Mercedes is not as good as McLaren at the moment, but if we look at it in the long term, Mercedes will recover in the next six months to a year. At Ferrari it is all very political and they are simply not as good as Mercedes.’ In other words, the only logical choice for Hamilton is an extension of his contract with the German racing team, and he has done that.
Possibly light at the end of the tunnel for Mercedes
Windsor therefore assumes that Hamilton mainly thought logically when he decided to remain loyal to Mercedes. “It must have been some kind of disciplinary, black and white or polarized choice, but emotion probably did not play a role in his choice to stay at Mercedes.” According to the Formula 1 journalist, there is a good chance that the German racing team will sooner or later be able to turn the tide again, and Hamilton would secretly hope for that too. ‘Three times is a charm, of course, he might also think. I don’t think he expects the team to send a bad car onto the track three years in a row, so it has to be a good car if we believe the law of averages.’
In any case, Windsor expects that the seven-time world champion will look at the situation differently after a significant improvement during the 2023 season finale. According to the Formula 1 journalist, Hamilton performed slightly better in the last few races of last season then teammate George Russell, and it really paid off. “I think he’s happy with his own level at the moment,” Windsor began. ‘He has established a good rhythm and he also seemed to perform slightly better than Russell, at least in the last few race weekends of 2023. That will undoubtedly have given him the necessary confidence for the winter break.’
