Earlier this year, it was announced that Lewis Hamilton will be leaving a fifteen-year-long partnership with Mercedes at the end of 2024. From the next season, he will appear in the iconic Ferrari red overalls, as he has taken up a $100 million offer to drive for Maranello. The end of the historic partnership with Mercedes will be bittersweet. In the latest episode of Beyond the Grid Podcast, Mercedes’ technical director, James Allison talks about what he’ll miss about Lewis, his infamous “tires gone” message, and the drama that goes along with him being someone’s teammate.
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Tom Clarkson asked James, “What will he miss about Lewis?” James said, “I mean, just the days where he would just produce total magic. That would make you go. Oh, my goodness!!! Putting a car on a road with such precision that just left all the other drivers around him with no option but to sort of surrender to what Lewis was doing on the road, the ability to make a tire last and last and last even while telling Bono it wouldn’t. He does a lot of that. The drama that goes along with having him as a teammate but just the delivery of brilliant performance I’ve said before, I think he’s he’s the best racing car driver there’s ever been and I still believe it.”
Allison also shed light on the qualifying gap between the Silver Arrows’ teammates.
“George has had the better of it”: James Allison explains Lewis Hamilton-George Russell qualifying
George Russell 8- Lewis Hamilton 1. The qualifying story of this season has been tilting shockingly against the teams’ champion Lewis. Mercedes key figure and technical director James Allison answers whether he thinks George has taken a step up this year and if the young Britton has reacted well to Lewis’ Ferrari move.
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Tom Clarkson asked James, “Do you think George’s taken a step up this year? Do you think he’s reacted well to the news that Lewis Hamilton is leaving?”
James, “I think he’s very, very consistent on getting the car at its best on in qualifying trim and it’s you know he’s really good at that. I think it’s much more even in the race and Lewis’s race pace has been very strong relative to George on a number of occasions this year, but in qualifying, George has definitely had the better of it.”
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Why do you think Lewis has been lagging in qualifying as compared to his teammate George?