This Sunday’s race at the Dutch GP is exactly how Lewis Hamilton‘s 2023 season has panned out. Mercedes has put him in howlers of situations. Yet he has risen from the ashes to show a masterclass like no other. But to no avail. How long can the blunders by the Silver Arrows be ignored? They need to step up because fighting to just be in the points is not what the 7x champ is cut out for. This weekend, the team made 5 big blunders that put Hamilton in a precarious position.

Throughout the weekend, the weather gods had an absolute ball, playing with the positioning of the clouds and the sun at Zandvoort. If that wasn’t enough of a challenge for Hamilton, his team joined in to make his life more miserable. It’s almost as if Mercedes wants their talisman to face as many challenges as he can.

The weekend got off to a very good start for the 7-time champion. 2 good practice sessions on Friday, followed by a mediocre one on Saturday. But Qualifying is where it all went downhill. Encountering traffic, and managing the different tire compounds and temperatures were only a few of the challenges he faced, to get eliminated in Q2, in P13. At no point did it look like the Brackley outfit was supporting him to their best. Eventually, it all showed in today’s race result when the best he could manage was finishing P6.

Hamilton was the only driver to start on the Mediums while all other drivers were on the Softs. Rain in Lap 1 played spoilsport for some and angel-like for others. Mercedes could have brought him in immediately like the other teams did for their drivers. But no, they were adamant about him staying out. Because of that, he dropped to P20, even behind debutant Liam Lawson.

Recovering from that proved to be an absolute nightmare for the Briton. At this point, Lewis Hamilton can have his own version of ’13 Reasons Why’. However, after the race, Team Principal Toto Wolff took the burden of all the blame on his shoulders.

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Toto Wolff shoulders the blame for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell’s miseries

Mercedes is slowly disintegrating into making big blunders of decisions like the Ferrari of the recent past. For that matter, even Ferrari made better decisions today. Both, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell suffered because of the 1st Lap horror-call.

A very disappointed Hamilton told Sky Sports, post the Dutch GP, “I was the only one on the medium tire and I wanted to be offset to the people around me, not everyone on the grid. That rain came and as a team, we made the wrong decision. Ultimately, it was the team’s call. We paid the price for that.”

Owning up for the massive slip-up by his team, Wolff told Sky Sports, “I think we stayed out catastrophically too long. We got it completely wrong and it is annoying because the car had real pace. It is bittersweet because the result is just really bad It was absolutely sub-par from all of us and that includes me.”

Is this the last straw for the 7-time champion? If the team continues making such miscalculations, even Toto Wolff’s good relationship with Hamilton won’t help their long-term partnership.

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