Lewis Hamilton is urging Mercedes’ followers to remain constructive amidst a wave of negativity directed at George Russell and claims of favouritism throughout the Silver Arrows outfit.
Hamilton’s struggles in qualifying have been a serious speaking level all through the 2024 season.
Together with his transfer to Ferrari confirmed for 2025, his efficiency is being more and more scrutinized, particularly contemplating Russell’s present dominance within the head-to-head battle with a rating of 8-1.
Issues got here to a head in Monaco when Hamilton, after qualifying behind Russell, made a seemingly cryptic remark about “efficiency coming away from my automobile.”
On the time, Russell was assigned a brand new entrance wing by Mercedes that was believed to supply a big efficiency enhance.
Nevertheless, it later got here to gentle that Hamilton was additionally provided the chance to run the brand new aero component. He in the end opted to not, prioritizing avoiding potential injury in qualifying that might have jeopardized his race weekend.
However in Canada, the stark distinction in efficiency between the 2 drivers on Saturday, with Russell qualifying on pole whereas Hamilton was solely seventh, triggered a wave of hypothesis on social media about Mercedes probably favouring Russell.
Forward of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, reporters instantly addressed the difficulty with Hamilton, who responded with a plea for his followers to not unfold claims of favouritism.
“Yeah, I feel they know that we’re…” he replied. “In case you have a look at the years, we have all the time been a robust workforce. We have all the time labored actually arduous collectively.
“I feel it is simple to get emotional. However I feel it is all the time… I even commented within the final race, for instance, nearly my efficiency.
“I feel we’d like help, not negativity. I wasn’t really conscious that George was experiencing negativity.
“George does nothing however his finest each single weekend and he is growing with the workforce. So, he cannot be faulted in any respect.
“In fact, there can all the time be issues which can be higher throughout the workforce. And that comes by dialog, by communication.
“And that is one thing that we have been persistently engaged on. However we’re all in the identical boat. We’re all working arduous collectively. All of us need to end on a excessive and I really feel we owe that to our long-term relationship.”
Queried on the state of affairs involving his teammate and the latter defending him, Russell famous the “double-edged sword” aspect of social media.
“Personally I do not look on Instagram or Twitter, to be trustworthy,” he mentioned.
“I nonetheless kind of management my very own accounts, so what my workforce and all the content material that goes out is thru me – the captions, all the pieces is all of my messaging.
©Mercedes
“However I feel social media is a very double-edged sword. There’s so many humorous issues that you just see on social media and it retains you updated with a lot.
However then on the flip aspect it isn’t simply myself, however all people within the limelight, there appears to be negativity pointed in direction of them.
“And like Lewis mentioned, you need to really feel their help, and never giving out negativity to others.
“So, as I mentioned, it isn’t one thing I’ve seen or heard about it [from viewing comments online]. In fact, it is by no means good to listen to these items, however that is sadly the world we dwell in in the intervening time.
“And what any individual within the public eye is dealing with.”
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