A race-winning F1 driver has lost faith in his team at the start of the 2024 season, Ralf Schumacher says. Red Bull remain the dominant force in the sport despite an extra year of development for their rivals.
Max Verstappen and the Bulls have won three of the first four races, collecting one-two finishes on each occasion. So far, only unreliability has been able to stand in their way, with Verstappen retiring because of brake issues in Australia to hand Carlos Sainz and Ferrari the win.
And speaking to Sky Germany, Schumacher slammed one of Red Bull’s competitors. The brother of seven-time world champion Michael, the 48-year-old won six Grands Prix in a 180-race F1 career.
Ferrari have been the biggest threat to the reigning champions so far as the only other team with at least one car on the podium at every race. Sainz and Charles Leclerc have also scored three front-row starts between them in qualifying.
McLaren have retained their front-running pace from the end of last season but don’t seem to be able to match Ferrari at the moment. Mercedes, meanwhile, are a distant fourth in the championship, already 86 points behind the top two.
Ralf Schumacher explains why Lewis Hamilton has ‘run away’
Schumacher reckons that the Silver Arrows have lost the confidence of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who’s headed for Ferrari next year. The W15 has statistically been Mercedes’ poorest car since the W02 in 2011, failing to score a single podium in the first four races.
Last time out in Japan, Mercedes initially attempted a one-stop strategy, which left their drivers sitting ducks against rivals on fresher tyres. They then pivoted to a two-stop, but it was only enough to salvage a seventh and a ninth, deepening the ‘catastrophe’ at Brackley.
“[Lewis Hamilton has] run away for 2025 […] because he no longer believes in the team,” Schumacher said. “Mercedes has a problem at the moment.
“It’s a catastrophe what they’re doing at the moment. Some of them don’t even know what they’re doing.
When discussing their attempt at an alternate strategy in Japan, he added: “It’s […] almost desperate, at least that’s the impression.
Is Vettel going to Mercedes?
Alongside their woes on track, the big story at Mercedes has been the search for Hamilton’s replacement. Toto Wolff is apparently ready to wait until the end of the summer before he makes a final call on the identity of George Russell’s teammate.
There’s recently been talk that four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel could make a sensational return to the sport with the German manufacturer after retiring in 2022. Former Aston Martin colleague Bernie Collins reckons Vettel would accept an offer from Wolff, and Russell has welcomed the idea of facing him.
The 53-time race-winner himself has said that he remains in good physical condition, even if he’d need time to re-acclimatise to the G-forces of F1 once he got back behind the wheel. However, David Croft suspects that Mercedes will pursue a ‘younger option’ if they can’t sign top target Verstappen.
Said option could well be 17-year-old junior driver Kimi Antonelli. It’s recently emerged that the Italian is ‘looking likely’ to get the seat alongside Russell for a high-stakes F1 debut.
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