Condemning his W15 as a ‘wooden plank’ in Brazil, Marc Priestley fears Lewis Hamilton could be in a ‘similar’ situation to Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez as today’s aerodynamic ground-effect F1 cars hui do not suit his driving style.

Scoring just one point during the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend, a race he has won three times, Hamilton has not hesitated to criticize his Mercedes F1 car.

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11th in Sprint and Sprint qualifying, Hamilton said his car was similar to ‘Baku 2022’ as he suffered from serious porpoises.

This didn’t improve in qualifying and the Grand Prix as he was eliminated in Q1 where he finished 16th fastest, and disparaged the “damn car” before telling the media it was the “worst » car he had ever driven, before carving his way to 10th place in the 71-lap Grand Prix.

But even then, he didn’t have anything nice to say about his F1 car.

“It was a disastrous weekend, guys,” he radioed to Mercedes after taking the checkered flag in 10th place. “This is the worst car this car has ever seen.”

He doubled down on this in his post-race interviews, saying: “It’s like a plank of wood. There is no suspension. It bounces off the tires everywhere. I can’t get power anywhere.

“It’s definitely the worst race we’ve ever had, especially in the corners. So stiff.

On a day when “at least one car was behaving” as Russell raced for a podium before crossing the line in fourth place, Hamilton’s frustrations were notable.

The Brazilian Grand Prix was just Hamilton’s latest mistake in a season in which he has already lost the qualifying head-to-head with Russell, while he now also trails of his teammate in the Drivers’ Championship.

Priestley, a former McLaren mechanic, sees similarities between Hamilton’s problems and those of former VCARB driver Daniel Ricciardo. It places Sergio Pérez, who could yet lose his Red Bull seat amid his woes, in the same category of drivers whose driving style is not suited to today’s aerodynamic ground-effect cars.

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Priestley said on his YouTube channel: “I mean Lewis Hamilton, what happened to Lewis Hamilton?

“Someone asked me earlier why did Lewis Hamilton lose his boil and I honestly think it’s a similar type of situation to Daniel Ricciardo lately, Checo Perez.

“I don’t think Daniel Ricciardo, Checo Perez or Lewis Hamilton suddenly became bad drivers.

“I think the modern generation of cars is so specific, so nuanced in how you extract performance from them and in the case of these three drivers it doesn’t suit the driving style that they are so accustomed to, it is anchored in them and around which they have built their careers.

“These cars require something very specific, both from a technical point of view when it comes to setting them very low and stiff, but also in the way you drive them and that doesn’t suit these guy there.

“They have trouble getting tire temperature into the tires and as soon as you can’t do that, as soon as you fall out of that window, the performance goes away.

“And when the performance disappears, you have difficulty getting the tire temperature back up and it’s this vicious cycle that you can’t get out of very easily.

“I think that’s what’s happening to Lewis.”

But there is a little light on the horizon with Hamilton at Ferrari next season and their car could suit him, Priestley says.

“If you are a fan of Lewis Hamilton,” he continued, “rest assured when he joins Ferrari, the Ferrari may well be a car much more suited to his driving style and things could change completely .”

“That may not be the case, but let’s see.”

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