Speaking at the Thursday press conferences ahead of the 2023 Monaco Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton not only dismissed rumors of a potential move to Ferrari, but the seven-time champion addressed the long-awaited upgrades to the W14, and asserted that Mercedes still has championship stock.
“[W]e’re still a championship-winning team. It’s just we’ve had the wrong car,” said Hamilton on Thursday. “There have been some decisions that have been made over the past two years that have not been ideal and we’re working our way through that.”
Hamilton, like the entire F1 world, has been looking forward to seeing the upgrades to the W14. Those upgrades were finally unveiled in Monaco this week, and while they have yet to see the track, the revised sidepods have some wondering if Mercedes can finally challenge at the front.
“We have a new upgrade this weekend, the team have worked incredibly hard to bring this upgrade. We already, after Bahrain, decided that that’s what we’re going to do, and so I was a little bit gutted when the last race got cancelled because I was excited to try this new package,” added Hamilton. “And whilst here is not the best platform track-wise to really see those come to fruition we’ll hopefully experience that more next week.”
Hamilton also mirrored thoughts Team Principal Toto Wolff shared this past offseason about the importance of losing. In response to a question from Luke Smith of The Athletic regarding learning from defeats, Hamilton had this to say:
“100% yeah. As the sport continues to grow, there’s more and more people coming onto the team. There’s a lot of people on the team that have had all the success that we’ve had in the past. And there’s a lot of people that haven’t had that success yet and are super hungry. I’m really encouraged when I do go back to the factory and see just how hard everyone’s working. Last year we were a little bit lost in terms of how to fix the issue that we had. I feel like the team now have a much… they have a north star, they know exactly where they need to go and we’re working on how to get there. But yeah, the amount of work has gone in is incredible and I’m very, very grateful for the hard work. I’ve been so excited to get in the car and feel these changes and I feel that hopefully puts us on the right path now to progress forward and try and catch the guys ahead.“
Mercedes fans are now hoping that north star is the podium.