"A sign to Lewis that..." Are Mercedes' tech changes a ploy to convince Lewis Hamilton to stay?
Ahead of this weekend’s , Mercedes announced th꧟at James Allison would return as the team’s technical director, while Mike Elliott would take over as chief technical officer.
The news has been met with a positive reception from both Hamilton and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:George Russell.
The seven-time world champion is still out of contract at the en⭕d of the year, although he’s publicly stated that he wi🍨shes to remain with the team.
ꦿSpeaking on Thursday in ♈Baku, Hill gave his verdict on the technical management changes.
“It was probably a combination. It was abundantly clea🔜r that Mercedes was not the car of the previous era,” he said. "The car loo🌼ks different to other cars, notably the Red Bull or the Ferrari.
“The question was raised in 2022 - is it the right way to go? 2023 comes꧋ around, still no race-winning car. It didn’t Lewis to point it o⛎ut. But Lewis was vocal. He was echoing what everyone was feeling and saying.
“Toto Wolff will bang heads together and say: ‘We need to make change💟s’. I think Lewis can probably wait a little bit longer until he feels confident.
“I can’t imagine that Mercedes are pressuring him. They know that they’ve got things to work out. They have made some changes to their design structure, with James Allison coming back, and Mike Elliott overseeing the whole gr🌄oup. A bit of shuffling around.
“You could read that as a [sign] to Lewis that they are going to make changes at Mercedes, so they have a competitive car going forwa﷽rds.”
Hill believes if Hamilton decided to walk away from Mercedes, 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc would be💖 the ideal replacement amid speculation ꧑that the Ferrari driver has held talks with Toto Wolff.
“He would be a strong bet,” he added. “He is a♊ talent that a lot of people feel is wasted at Ferrari.
“Ferrari hav♋e not given him what he needs to develop, and to deliver results. I can imagine the frustration is getting to Charles.
“If Mercedes said to him: ‘Lewis is deciding to move on, would you be interested?’&༒nbsp;I’m sure ౠhe’d jump at that chance.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the hearౠtbeat of our unbiased reporting.
