Guenther Steiner feels that with Lewis Hamilton knowing he is moving to Ferrari in 2025, it is “easier to complain” across his final Formula 1 races with Mercedes.
In qualifying at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Hamilton was knocked out in Q1, prompting him to comment the Mercedes W15 felt like “the worst car I’ve ever driven”.
The race wasn’t any better for the seven-time World Champion, finishing 10th with a single point after having little pace and experiencing heavy bouncing.
On this occasion, Hamilton expressed that the conclusion to the 2024 campaign “can’t come soon enough” after what he described as a “terrible” weekend in Brazil.
Speaking on The Red Flags Podcast, Steiner gave his verdict on Hamilton’s complaints.
“The car is what it is, It’s not the best car, it’s the fourth best car at the moment on a good day,” he said.
“I think Lewis knowing that he’s leaving anyway, it’s easier to complain.
“George has got all the interest to do to whatever is there to show that he’s the leader of the team for the future.
“He has to prove that, because he knows that because he knows that when his Mercedes contract is up, his seat is not 100 per cent safe so he just tries to do his best, puts everything into it.
“And on the other side, Lewis doesn’t like the car and how it drives, knows that now in three races he’s not there anymore.”
Steiner takes dig at Mercedes over Hamilton IP question
Recent reports have suggested that Hamilton is no longer attending Mercedes’ meetings between now and the end of the season, with three races left to go in 2024.
The ex-Haas boss was asked to give his take on whether Mercedes should be worried about the “valuable IP [intellectual property] that he’s [Hamilton] gonna steal”.
Steiner laughed and responded: “Nobody wants it! Maybe they want it to know what not to do. It’s like ‘get me the IP so I know what not to do’.”
However, the former Haas team principal was then asked if he was ever concerned that one of his drivers would ever take the IP.
“Never. Who wants it? I was actually hoping that someone could be stealing it. Just have it at, please do it,” the 59-year-old added.
Hamilton ‘sees the glass half empty’ with Mercedes car
Despite his remarks, Steiner did admit missing meetings would not impact Hamilton that much.
“Lewis has so much experience he doesn’t need to be in these meetings,” he said.
“His engineer is in there anyway, because you need to set the car up and obviously has to give the feedback what he wants on the car.
“I mean, the car, it is what it is.
“I think Lewis is just at that point he doesn’t like the car, he complains about that, he sees the glass half empty while George sees his half full. They’ve got a few more races to go.”
Asked where it has gone wrong at Mercedes this season, Steiner replied: “They won three races this year then they said, ‘Oh, we understood now what we need’ and then the race later, they didn’t. That means they didn’t understand that.
“Toto [Wolff] said a few times this year: ‘We now understand what we need to do’ and stuff like this but they didn’t.”
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