Günther Steiner believes that Lewis Hamilton's recent criticism of Mercedes F1 and its W15 comes from the fact that the seven-time world champion is leaving for Ferrari, and that he is struggling to stay motivated behind the wheel 'a rebellious single-seater that is difficult to adjust.
“The W15 is what it is. It's not the best car, it's the fourth best car around on a good day. So I think Lewis, knowing he's going to go anyway, has easier to complain” Steiner explains.
“But George has every interest in doing what it takes to come out of this, to show that he is the leader of the team for the future. He has to prove it because he knows that his seat, in the end of his contract, is not 100% sure.”
The Italian differentiates between Russell's state of mind and Hamilton's: “Russell is trying to do his best, he's putting his all into it, and on the other side Lewis is there and he doesn't like the car, how it drives, he knows after three races he won't be there anymore. This disturbs him and I would say that he is not handling this situation very well.
Steiner doesn't think the lack of involvement in the 2025 briefings is the cause of Hamilton's demotivation: “Lewis has so much experience that he doesn't need to attend these meetings, his engineer is there anyway, because the car needs to be tuned.”
“Lewis still has to give his opinion, what he wants on the car. But it's all of those things at once. I mean the car is what it is. I think Lewis, at this point, doesn't I don't like the car. He complains about it.”
“He sees the glass half empty while George sees his glass half full and full of opportunities. Lewis sees the glass half empty, while George sees it half full, with opportunities. Lewis sees the glass half empty and says to himself, 'I still have a few races to do here, there's nothing left to gain'.”
Hamilton has three races left before joining Ferrari. Could he really take intellectual property from the Reds? Steiner laughed at the idea!
“No one wants this Mercedes! Maybe they want to know what not to do. It's like they're giving me the intellectual property so I know what not to do TO DO.”
“I myself was hoping that one of my former drivers could steal the characteristics of our Haas when they were bad! That would have weakened our competitors (laughs)!”
