09 May 2023 , 14:20
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Lewis Hamilton will be "seething" with the Mercedes situation he currently finds himself in, believes Ralf Schumacher.
After a year to forget in 2022, Hamilton and everyone else involved with Mercedes will have been hoping for a return to winning ways this season. But that has not been the case and, if anything, the size of the performance gap to runaway championship leaders Red Bull appears to be even greater.
The Silver Arrows sit third in the constructors' standings after the first five races, and it might have been even worse had Ferrari not been suffering their own significant issues. It was those Italian woes which helped Mercedes to outscore them in Miami last weekend.
George Russell finished fourth ahead of Carlos Sainz, while Hamilton overtook Charles Leclerc late on to snatch sixth from the Monegasque. That came after an eyebrow-raising moment when Russell – on a different strategy – came up behind his team-mate after making his pit stop.
Hamilton was not racing his fellow Brit as he was yet to stop, so Mercedes were quickly onto the radio to make sure Russell wasn't adversely affected. "We have George 1.1 behind. We aren't racing him. We are racing Esteban Ocon. So let's not hold each other up," was the message received by the seven-time world champion.
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"He can go by but I am not backing off though," came his reply, a begrudging agreement. It proved to be a successful tactic as Russell went on to overtake Sainz to snatch fourth place, but Schumacher still feels it would have been humiliating for the 38-year-old.
Ralf Schumacher thinks being ordered to let George Russell pass was the 'maximum penalty' for Lewis Hamilton (Getty Images)"Lewis Hamilton is currently going to be extremely seething," he told Sky Sports Germany. "He's not used to not winning. He wants attention, you can always see that in his outfits. In Miami, he landed behind his team-mate George Russell. This is a maximum penalty for Hamilton."
But Mercedes chief Toto Wolff was pleased with the way Hamilton handled the situation and happy with the result overall, given both his drivers improved on their grid positions. Asked if he thought he would get any trouble over the request, he said: "No, absolutely not. George was a stop ahead.
"To see two teammates, both on very good levels, they are both so straight-forward. That is good at such a difficult moment. The car was good today. From P13 it's pretty difficult if you start on the same strategy as everyone else to pass.
"Therefore we went with hard [tyre compound]. Then we saw others had thought the same. Considering the strategy hope that we had, that nobody would start on the hards, was diminished, he drove a great race."