Former F1 driver Robert Doornbos said Mercedes’ points difference over Red Bull was “embarrassing” as Lewis Hamilton went from “hero to zero” in China on Saturday.
Despite starting this season confident that Mercedes has taken a step forward with the new W15, problems with the correlation between the factory and the track have left Mercedes struggling to find answers.
Lewis Hamilton goes from ‘hero to zero’ in China
Data from simulation tools shows the team claims it has found downforce after overhauling the car over the winter, but lap times are not available.
This means Mercedes have not finished on the podium this season, apart from Hamilton’s second place behind Max Verstappen in the sprint race in China.
The team finished fifth in the Grand Prix, their best result, with 42 points, 113 points behind championship leader Red Bull.
“It’s embarrassing for Mercedes to have so few points,” Doornbos told Ziggo Sport.
Mercedes’ hopes of improving on Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix were dealt a blow in qualifying when Hamilton made a mistake at Turn 14 and went wide.
As a result, the seven-time world champion is said to have lost six-tenths of a second, dropping to 18th on the grid.
“Hamilton went from being a hero to being a zero,” was Doornbos’s assessment. “He was second in the sprint race, but you qualified 18th for the race.”
His fellow critic Olaf Mol added: “The difference between Russell and Hamilton is too big. They don’t always score in pairs like Red Bull and McLaren.”
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Nico Rosberg criticizes Lewis Hamilton’s ‘excuses’
Hamilton claimed set-up changes were to blame for his qualifying struggles, with the Briton revealing that Mercedes had been experimenting with their set-up between the sprint and qualifying.
“This afternoon we are going to continue our experiments with the car,” he said. “I went a long way in one direction, and he went the other way to see if he could find anything.
“That’s what we have to do at this point. But yeah, it didn’t work out.”
He added: “It wasn’t too bad in some places, but we struggled. We couldn’t stop it in 14 seconds. So this is what it is now.”
However, former teammate Nico Rosberg said it was just an “excuse” and that Hamilton had made a mistake.
“For me, it’s an excuse for this year,” he told Sky Sports. “He was running a great lap and the moment he braked too much he was a tenth faster than George.
“He’s going through a difficult phase right now.”
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