Lewis Hamilton has been practicing his profession with Mercedes since 2013.
Since announcing his surprising move to Ferrari in 2025, Lewis Hamilton has been repeatedly questioned about his ambition to achieve results for Mercedes this season. In response, the British driver expressed his dedication to Mercedes, aiming to maximize his performance before leaving the team.
After Lewis Hamilton’s disappointing race in Japan, where he finished 9th, he was asked if he felt envious of Ferrari’s strong performance, as they seemed to be making significant progress with their car compared to Mercedes. This question seemed to irritate Hamilton, leading him to abruptly leave the interview.
Ferrari has reached the podium in every race this season.
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With Ferrari drivers securing podium positions and Mercedes finishing fourth in Suzuka, the journalist may have asked this question to provoke a reaction from Hamilton. The British driver will be eager to bounce back from his poor run of results during the upcoming Chinese GP weekend.
The result Mercedes achieved in the Japanese Grand Prix will be hard to accept. After qualifying in 7th and 9th places, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton and [driver’s name], the duo failed to move up and ended up finishing outside the top five positions.
After the disappointing result, [driver’s name] spoke to Sky Sports F1 about the reasons why Mercedes struggled to move up the field. He mentioned how the decision to switch to hard tires after the red flag on lap 1, caused by the collision between [driver’s name] and [driver’s name], resulted in a disastrous first stint where they couldn’t compete with the cars ahead.
“We ended up where we started and it was very challenging. We need to investigate the cause – was it due to excessive heat or overmanagement? Initially, it seemed like the right choice because our lap times were relatively stable. Our direct competitors were not pulling away significantly, but suddenly our lap times dropped by two seconds and two and a half seconds per lap. At that moment, it became clear that it wouldn’t last.”
The Austrian driver also expressed his surprise at the sudden drop in performance of the hard tires on the W15, which ultimately cost them a chance to finish on the podium. If Mercedes wants to compete at the top of the grid in China, they will need to improve their performance and solve these problems.