Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes would like nothing more than to end their 12 years together on a high.
However, based on recent form, there is a very real risk that their time may finish not with a bang, but with a whimper.

If things continue like they did in Brazil last weekend, where Hamilton qualified 14th and finished 10th while team-mate George Russell started on the front row and fought for the win, then there will not be much to smile about when the curtain comes down in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton’s own verdict after the Brazilian Grand Prix was pretty damning, as he labelled the race as “crap” on Sunday night.

He added: “Yesterday [Saturday] was terrible. Today [Sunday] was terrible. Yesterday was bad. Qualifying was bad. Sprint race was bad. The car’s just been bad all weekend.”

He further fuelled intrigue about the scale of the struggles enveloping him as he delivered a cryptic message over the radio straight after the chequered flag.

“That was a disaster of a weekend, guys,” he said on the cooldown lap. “That’s the worst the car has ever been. But thank you for contributing to try, and great job to all the guys at the pitstop.

“If this is the last time I get to perform it was a shame it wasn’t great – but grateful for you.”

Some interpreted those comments as a revelation that Brazil was going to be Hamilton’s last race, although that is certainly wide of the mark.

And, although it is not clear exactly what he was referring to, his remark about the pit crew on a day when they were not actually called into action, was more likely a reference to the fact that some personnel were having their last race appearance of 2024 in Brazil due to the shuffling around of staff to cope with the intense schedule for triple headers.

The root of the problem

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

While the current performances on the track are not great, what is perhaps the biggest issue right now is that neither Mercedes nor Hamilton had an immediate answer after Brazil for what had gone wrong, despite there being some clear symptoms.

What is at play is a repeat of what he has been battling since the summer break, when his form took a big dip from that spell in July when he took two wins from three races.

Primarily, the problem appears to be about Hamilton having a lack of confidence in the car, especially its rear end.

The current generation of ground effect machinery are pretty brutal machines – running super stiff and super close to the ground – and they are not very forgiving when driving on the edge.

Some drivers are better suited to overcome an unpredictable balance, but Hamilton is finding himself put a bit more on the back foot by it.

And typically, when a driver loses faith in the rear end, it slides more – and that then compounds tyre temperature issues.

So what starts out as a small issue can quickly manifest itself into something bigger and can make two nearly identical cars vastly different in how they develop over a race stint.

As Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin explained this week: “It is fair to say Lewis was struggling predominantly with a lack of rear grip.

“If we look at how he had set up his car, it is not obvious where that was coming from.

“But in the sprint race, as soon as you have got less grip and you are getting the snaps of oversteer on exit, you generate more temperature. That in itself will prolong the problem.

“As with any race, we spend a lot of time digging into the data, trying to understand it, and Lewis’ engineering crew will be working with him on this issue, trying to make sure we get to the bottom of it before Vegas.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Hamilton’s struggles in finding a set-up he feels comfortable with have also not been helped much by Mercedes’ latest upgrade that arrived at the United States Grand Prix.

While it appears to have ticked all the boxes when it comes to deliver extra performance on track, there are some questions about it also adding some behavioural instability as well – as was witnessed by Hamilton’s race exit in Austin a day after George Russell’s qualifying crash.

And a particular weakness the car has, in dealing with successive low-speed corners, is something that has not been improved with the latest changes.

Shovlin added: “We have not had such good performance in the dry, but the issues that we are struggling with with this update are the same as the ones we were struggling with before.

“Where we tend to be weak, it is in the slow speed corners, particularly the ones where you have got one corner following into another. There is a lot of turning of the car, and that is a weakness that we need to work on.”

With sector two of Interlagos being pretty much all about interconnected slow corners, it was obvious that the Brazil event was going to potentially be more difficult than normal for the team.

Working on a solution

The only positive for Hamilton right now is that at least Russell’s performances show what is possible with the car.

And some forthcoming high-speed venues, especially Qatar, could help better expose the strengths of the W15 package rather than its weaknesses.

Hamilton has admitted that things are not easy right now, but there was no other option than to dig deeper with his team to try to find a way out of it before Abu Dhabi.

“Obviously, it’s devastating to have these bad races in the second half of the season,” he said. “But all I can say is, we’re trying. 

“But it’s definitely not acceptable. It’s definitely not good enough. And we have to take accountability. I have to take accountability. But I am driving.; I am doing the best with what I’ve got. 

“The car has been the worst this weekend, and I don’t know what it is. We’re going to have to find out what it is.”

That work began for Hamilton this week with some intense work at the factory to sit down with the engineers, and spend time in the simulator yesterday, to try to get some answers as to what is happening.

Las Vegas will tell us just how much those efforts have paid off.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

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Earlier this week, NASCAR issued substantial penalties to the three teams involved in what series officials deemed to be a form of race manipulation — the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet of Ross Chastain, and the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota of Bubba Wallace. Crew chiefs, spotters, and key executives were suspended for one week. Each team and driver were docked 50 points, and fined $200,000 (100k for the team and 100k for the driver).

Initially, all three teams made it clear that they intended to appeal the penalties. 23XI, who is also fighting for the Cup title this weekend with Tyler Reddick, quickly decided to withdraw their appeal. But both Chevrolet teams involved moved forward. However, after Trackhouse lost their appeal on Thursday evening, RCR lost their own.

Those who heard the case from Trackhouse: Kelly Housby, Lyn St. James, and Steve York. Trackhouse will not appeal the penalty any further.

In a statement released from the panel, they explained the decision: “We feel in the best interest of racing and to protect the integrity of the sport, it was appropriate to uphold and affirm NASCAR’s decision with regard to the NASCAR rule 4.4, attempting to manipulate the outcome of the race.”

Ty Majeski, who will compete for the 2024 Truck title on Friday with ThorSport, was the final driver to transfer into the Championship 4 at Martinsville. As part of his Championship 4 duties, he, along with other final four members of each series were required to be in attendance Tuesday of this week for a production day to create and film content for the upcoming weekend. Majeski, however, wasn’t there, resulting in a $12,500 fine from NASCAR. Series officials cited “failure to complete media obligations” as the reason.

But it’s not like Majeski was having a lazy day at home or simply forgot. He had flown home to the pivotal battleground state of Wisconsin to vote in the 2024 presidential election. 

And as Majeski noted, he wasn’t even part of the Championship 4 until locking in last weekend, just a few days before Election Day. And unlike many in the NASCAR world, he is registered to vote in a state other than North Carolina, thus creating this unique conflict.

Ty Majeski, ThorSport Racing, Road Ranger Ford F-150

Photo by: John Harrelson / NKP / Motorsport Images

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“I didn’t know I was gonna be in the Championship 4 until a few days prior. I’ve always in my whole life been an election day vote guy. I’ve never done an absentee ballot. I wanted to make sure my vote was counted.”

“It’s obviously been a whirlwind for sure,” said Majeski on Thursday. “Like I said, I’m really focused on the race Friday night. I felt like I needed to do my duty as a US citizen to vote. My team owners and I, Duke [Thorson], Rhonda [Thorson] and Allison [Thorson], we all made the decision to exercise that right.”

Majeski and team intend to appeal the fine, and yes, he was fully aware that he was skipping production day to vote.

“I didn’t specifically have much communication with NASCAR prior, said Majeski  I let everybody internally at ThorSport handle those conversations prior to not being there on Tuesday, so I feel like they knew our position and it’s kind of unprecedented.

“It’s unfortunate circumstances for everybody. I don’t think anybody wants to be put in that position, but we have to have a free country to race in and that’s just part of being a US citizen, so I wanted to exercise that right.”

Max Verstappen’s rocky relationship with “Drive to Survive” is well-documented. The three-time world champion offers very little when he’s mic’d up in front of the cameras, and even boycotted the series altogether for a time. So it might be surprising to learn that Verstappen has been getting candid on camera for years — just not for Netflix. Nick Hoedeman, who’s directed nearly a dozen documentaries about Verstappen since 2017, explained why he’s been able to paint such an intimate portrait of the Red Bull driver when other documentarians have failed.  

“We never stage anything,” Hoedeman told Motorsport. “It’s all authentic. If I don’t capture it, he’s never going to do it again. What you see is what you get.” The Dutch filmmaker, who admitted he wasn’t a fan of Formula 1 before he was tapped to work with a then-teenaged Verstappen, said it took years to build trust with him and his tight-knit inner circle. 

“It wasn’t the first day, it wasn’t even the first year, it took time for him to trust me,” Hoedeman explained. “And I think it’s a big plus that I wasn’t a fan because I really couldn’t do the job I did for the last few years if I was,” he went on. “Now Max knows that we’re not manipulating the story … and he knows that when I’m around, I’ll be there for him.” 

Max Verstappen in his early years

Photo by: ViaPlay

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The first season of “Drive to Survive” depicts an intensely-focused Verstappen in contrast with his laid-back, joke-telling Aussie teammate Daniel Ricciardo. Though their on-track rivalry was real, the two were, and remain, friends off-track. In contrast, Hoedeman said that his films only “broadcast what really happens.” 

“We’re not going to create stories,” he said. “We have a relationship that is based on trust and when I’m around he can speak freely. I’m never travelling with a big group with Max. It’s only me, or I have one DOP (director of photography) with me, so it always stays quite personal and private.” 

The collection of 11 documentaries, now available to stream in the US and the UK on ViaPlay, give fans a peek behind the scenes of his life, both at the track and at home. The 2023 release, “Anatomy of a Champion,” offers a particularly revealing portrait of a fractured family unit that eventually found its way back together, and explores the complexities of a childhood moulded by ambition. That three-part series features rare comments from Verstappen about the impact of his parents’ divorce when he was nine and his father Jos’ controversial parenting methods. He even addresses the family patriarch’s run-ins with the law and brief jail stint, along with an infamous incident where Jos left a young Max at a gas station alone, which has become baked into modern F1 folklore. 

“He’s quite open-minded [but we had to] find a way to talk about it, and find that right moment,” Hoedeman said. One such moment captured in the film was an impromptu family lunch with Max, his sister Victoria, and both parents. The touching scene, which happened naturally rather than being staged by the crew, became one of the film’s centerpieces.

“The most surprising thing about Max is that he’s just just a normal boy,” Hoedeman noted. “Everybody thinks he has the most extravagant life but he just likes being at home with his family and friends. Of course, he’s in a private jet travelling the world, but deep down inside, he’s still that five year old boy who just loves to be in a racing car.”

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