Lewis Hamilton revealed that in the quest for performance at Mercedes, his disagreements are primarily with trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin.
F1 2023 has been a further season of frustration for the Mercedes team, their ambitions of returning to the title scene fading fast.
The eight-time Constructors’ champions decided after the opening round in Bahrain to ditch their unique ‘zero-pod concept’, their campaign descending into a battle with Ferrari to claim a distant P2 in the standings while Red Bull dominate.
Lewis Hamilton always arguing with Andrew Shovlin
Hamilton dished out some stern criticism of his Mercedes team in the early stages of F1 2023, claiming his input for the W14 had not been listened to.
But, in the quest for performance gains, he revealed that he often ends up clashing with Shovlin, who will tell him: “You’re not always right.”
In fairness, Hamilton says that often ends up proving to be true.
“One of my engineers, Shov, will say, ‘You’re not always right, right. You’ve just got to accept that you’re not always right,’” the Express quotes Hamilton as having told Esporte na Band.
“And that’s one of the things that I struggle with. I argue and argue and argue, but then I’ll say, ‘Yep, okay. You were right.’”
Hamilton said that Shovlin is the only person at Mercedes who he argues with, even his race engineer Peter Bonnington someone with whom this bickering does not take place, though Hamilton stressed this does not in any way mean his relationship with Shovlin is strained.
“That’s Shov. We’ve known each other for 11 years, we’ve had an amazing relationship, but we argue a lot,” Hamilton added. “Me and him are the only ones that argue here [at Mercedes].
“I don’t argue with Bono. We have just a mega, mega relationship.
“And it’s not that he agrees with everything that I do, but we just have a great rapport. Me and Shov, it’s still a great like… fantastic relationship, but I’m always challenging him like, ‘Yeah but Shov, what about this? What about that? Are you sure?’ And then he comes back and I’m like, ‘I’m sure you’re wrong.’”
But, while the pair like to thrash it out in their debates over performance, Hamilton sure feels the void when Shovlin isn’t there to dish out the rants to.
“So he took off a race, I think he was at home for the last race, And I was like ‘Where’s Shov? I don’t have anyone to argue with!” Hamilton said.
“So like we’re usually on the radio in the engineering and everyone is listening, and then me and Shov are going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.”
Hamilton and Shovlin will be hoping all of this proves to be worth it, as Mercedes look to finally make their return to the title scene in F1 2024.
