Why Lewis Hamilton's Driving Style Isn't Working

the worst season I've had since 2009 words from Louis Hamilton straight after the Australian Grand [Music] [Applause] [Music] Prix leis Hamilton is a seven time world champion and one of the best drivers to ever exist in our beautiful sport his driving style is famous for his signature breaking and he's no stranger to slow starts in the season but why is his style in 2024 just not working with this w15 car before I get more into depth with this video I wanted to thank you guys for the support on the channel thank you so much for supporting the channel like you guys do with the comments the views the likes it means a lot to me it really does mean the world to me so if you're new here please go ahead and subscribe it' mean a lot to me let's start the louw Hamilton driving Style video I made a video talking about leis Hamilton and his late breaking driving style but this year it has not been correlating on track and he has even said it is his Worst season since 2009 why this driving style isn't working can be fully explained throughout Lewis Hamilton's career his 18year stint now in Formula 1 he has not gotten lower than sixth place in the standings that is a ridiculous Mark to have and truly shows that he is one of the greatest of all time he's had a lot of great cars but he's also used them to the maximum his preferences from the start of his career to now in 2024 have been different and things that he liked on the beginning McLaren to now the w15 have changed the slightest bit so it's good to know the history in Lewis Hamilton and how he's adapted to these new cars when he first drove for McLaren from 2007 to 2012 he would tug the car big time because that car had a bit of under steer and the way that the tires were set up in that time period he was able to work the car to the max meaning he could throw it in he could afford a couple of lockups to go on his signature late breaking style the way he's able to late break is through Trail breaking he's able to go super deep into the corner and keep a pretty low minimum Apex speed but his exit would still be pretty good even on the drivers that use a v-shaped style to be able to do this he loved a super strong front end that's at least how he used to set up his cars back in the day when we didn't have these soft paral tires like we do now in 2024 so even he explains it you can just work the car however you'd like to but as these cars have adapted now the rear and is a bit more tricky and he's had to adapt to a different driving style while it is still his signature late breaking style where he really struggles with this w15 is that rear end stability the rear end stability has been something that's been noted so many times now with the 22 car the 23 car and the 24 car and it is very important to note that Lewis Hamilton has never really been a great season starter this isn't to mean that he's been really bad but he always takes a little bit of time to adapt to the car this was very evident in 2022 and in 2023 when we're talking about recent years in Formula 1 now in 2022 he was experimenting with the car he was trying to get it into that setup window when he first started in Formula 1 testing before the calendar year was allowed and a lot of drivers got their setup preferences through just testing alone before the season really started he was able to test that McLaren in ' 07 so much before actually driving it nowadays we only get three days of testing go into the grand PRI and you're pretty much relying on the data from last year's or the year before and the cars that were made in that time period from 2022 to 2023 to give you that setup data Lewis and the Mercedes team have been very experimental this is something that he's willing to do so he can get down on the car he says this car has a lot of potential and he says he was able to extract that potential very well in Bahrain fp2 so let's take a look at that lap and why he liked the car during free practice 2 in Bahrain when driving in the lap you can see minor Corrections throughout the whole entire lap you can see that the car still has a pretty weak rear end but something that Lewis was able to adapt to notably in turn one you can see him kind of catching that over steer and having to correct it but still keeping a lot of speed going into turns two and three you can also see him using his latebreaking style going into the deeper Corners that are slow speed Corners this is where LS Hamilton gets the maximum out of the C because he's able to break so late and go into that corner still with a lot of exit speed this is what makes Louis Hamilton famous on the breakes his preciseness throughout all these corners and being able to break late is what makes him as great as he is and the W5 purely lacks that preciseness in its rear end and that ability for leis Hamilton to actually have a feel for the grip on the downforce going into these Corners you lose more and more downforce as you're getting to the A aex and with Trail breaking meaning you start off at 100% And as you're getting more deeper into the corner you're letting go of the break little by little and naturally with a weak rear end it makes it really hard to catch that car into a perfect spot to where you don't have to overcorrect the steering like the w15 requires to me that if you have an over steering car you could always drive it fast if you have an under steering car you're going to suffer and it's maybe more true today uh definitely I mean I generally like a car that's going to going to turn want to be that goes back to 208 or as remember when you first came in you were so yeah so now I have to bring it back a little bit and try and find more of a balance as where before I just lived on the front end as leis Hamilton said the rear end is now very important on cars because of the rear tires and Lewis has never been great at keeping rear tires alive we even saw that in his Mercedes stin when they were the most dominant car that Mercedes car never had the best tires now was this to do with Lewis or the car naturally just not being great at tires but being super fast aerodynamically and obviously that engine was cranked up to the max Lewis was able to still put in a lot of speed and the way he drove in races was pretty much qualifying laps he was going as fast as possible and taking care of the tires was pretty much a second to him putting in fast laps the way that these cars are now built especially in this ground effect era Tire management is extremely important and that's why the Red Bull and this year's Ferrari have been so good in comparison to the w15 and why Louis Hamilton has been losing confidence slowly but surely within this car as I said with that dominant Mercedes era the red wll car was still the best on its tires and it was by a landslide regardless of the result they were the best car on tires and could usually make them last much longer than the Mercedes the experimental work for this Mercedes car and what Lewis Hamilton has been doing is to see if he can get the car in a setup window to where he's able to extract this maximum performance in braking but also keeping that speed going through the corner the w14 towards the end of the year we saw him push the maximum out of that car we saw great performances in Hungary we saw it in Mexico we saw that there were flashes of the old Lew Hamilton in his prime when being able to be a beast in the race qualifying was never really his thing and even with George Russell beating him out here in the 2024 season it's not where the worrying doubts come but in the race when he's having this instability not being able to control the car specifically in Australia throughout the whole whole entire weekend you could see he was having a big issue turn one is one of those Corners where you need a pretty strong rear end and we saw George and Lewis go off in turn one consistently even going through turns 9 and 10 you need a good rear end and having a lot of confidence in the car we saw the same issue in Jetta through sector 1 now you can note that the rear wing was definitely the wrong choice for that Grand Pre but Lewis Hamilton and George Russell also showed through free practice and putting on a different rear wing which they did in fp3 L still had no confidence in the car going through sector 1 even with a bigger rear wing so this is just an inherent problem with this Mercedes card through the ground effect era the W13 was able to hold a better rear end and its tires so we saw towards the end of the season Lewis really outperformed the car same thing with the W4 as the season went on they figured out a setup that was consistently working but not fast enough to get P1 and P2 on a consistent basis will we see this throughout the 2024 season yes we'll see leis Hamilton definitely grow with some confidence but I think his Venture in Ferrari if they continue down this path will show him being a lot more confident and I think we're going to see a rejuvenated Lewis Hamilton considering the issues with the Mercedes has he been losing his touch maybe it comes with age even with Lonzo he's not the same driver that he used to be he's still an amazing driver Lewis is still one of the best and if not in the top three all the time it's hard to doubt a driver that's been so good throughout his whole entire career that he's the one making the issues the rear end has just been an inherent problem and I expect much differently from Lewis coming in 2025 I hope you guys enjoyed the video breaking down why Le Hamilton has been really struggling in this season the rear end has definitely not been there for him and I do expect him to improve from race to race we're still only in the start and this is how Lewis is towards the beginning of the Season hope you guys enjoyed the video please leave a like subscribe it me in the world and peace

Channel: F1Unchained

Views: 261,444

Keywords: f1, formula 1, f1 news, driving styles f1, driving styles of f1 drivers, driving styles explained, lewis hamilton, lewis hamilton 2024, mercedes, w15, 2024 f1, f1 latest, lewis hamilton ferrari, lewis hamilton driving style, lewis hamilton driving style analysis, f1 unchained

Id: tPUUfBuId4Y

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 26 2024