Lewis Hamilton joined the Mercedes team in the 2013 season in a risky bet, since he was leaving a historically winning team like McLaren to go to a project that was growing, but it was not known how it would perform.
Back then, the Silver Arrows had only managed one win since their return to the top flight, that of Nico Rosberg at the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix, thus breaking the longest win streak in all-time history of 56 years, 7 months and 4 days (1955 Italian GP with Juan Manuel Fangio ).
Seeing this, it stood to reason that the Briton should have stayed at McLaren, but what no one knew was that with the introduction of the hybrid era, the Brackley team would become the most powerful force in the championship.
It may seem like a simple coincidence, but Lewis Hamilton replaced Michael Schumacher, with whom he now shares the world title record, so there are workers within Mercedes who have shared moments with both seven-time champions.
One of them is Philipp Brändle , a former engineer for the German ensemble who now spends his time as a television expert on ServusTV . The Austrian participated in several of the championships that Hamilton won with the star team in the aerodynamic department , and he knows what the pilot’s likes and weaknesses are.
Analyzing his current performance, behind his teammate George Russell, a newcomer who in just seven grand prix has added 34 points and two more podiums, the one who was one of the members of Mercedes explained what could happen with Hamilton.
“He needs extreme confidence in his car, but he is able to turn it around,” said the aerodynamicist. “He doesn’t have the technical background that Michael Schumacher or Nico Rosberg had, he needs confidence, but he feels what the car is.”
Brändle, despite acknowledging this weakness of the seven-time world champion seeing the difference he has with respect to the leaders this season, still sees a chance to win in the British.
“These 75 points are three races,” he continued. “Leclerc also had an advantage of more than 40 points at the beginning of the year, the season is still long.”
