Lewis Hamilton is no longer the top dog at Mercedes, according to commentator Eddie Jordan. It has been an extremely challenging campaign for the F1 seven-time champion thus far, who sits sixth in the drivers standings with just 50 points.
He is in the midst of his worst season since 2009 and any title aspirations the Brit has for this season are in tatters. His new Mercedes teammate George Russell meanwhile, has got off to a very promising start in his first season with the Silver Arrows.
The 24-year-old has finished inside the top 5 in every race so far this campaign, two of those coming on the podium. Hamilton has managed just one podium finish so far, back in Bahrain and that has also marked the only time he has finished above Russell in 2022. This has prompted Jordan to suggest that after Hamilton’s years of dominance, Mercedes now have a new sheriff in town.
“Absolutely, I think the big surprise is, everybody globally, in Formula 1 context, thinks that Lewis Hamilton is top dog,” he told Channel 4 . “But he’s no longer top dog, not even in that team because Russell has taken his perch away. And I think it’s very interesting to watch and I want to see how Lewis is going to overcome that.”
Both drivers appear to have a good relationship with each other and team principal Toto Wolff dismissed claims there is a shift within the team and said he was happy with both of his drivers. “I hardly follow it,” Wolff said to oe24.at when asked what he thought of the noise around his team.
“And when I pick up one or two remarks, I can only smile about them. George is doing a good job, but that’s exactly what we expected of him, that’s why he’s with Mercedes.” On track, both racers could be set for new upgrades ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix next Sunday.
Andrew Shovlin, trackside engineering director at Mercedes, hinted the team were working on ‘adding base performance’ to the car ahead of the next race. He also stressed the team will be hoping to make the car work over a ‘wider range of circuits’ after struggling at some of the street races this season, with Hamilton only managing an eighth-place finish in Monaco on Sunday.
Speaking on a Mercedes debrief video, Shovlin said: “Baku might present some similar challenges. We’re working on areas though to try and improve that ride, try and be able to run the car a bit closer to its optimal window. But we are well aware that in addition to adding base performance to the car we’ve got to make it work over a wider range of circuits.
“So these are all things that we are busy with in the next week in preparation for Baku but also longer-term because there’s other challenging tracks that will come up. But all of those projects are being worked on really hard because the team and the drivers are desperate to get back to the front.”
