Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton headed to last weekend’s Austrian GP in good form, having scored two consecutive podiums for Mercedes.
However, the race weekend was marred by the Briton making petulant comments, amongst other things.
For starters, ahead of the weekend, Hamilton suggested that the FIA ought to tweak the regulations in a bid to make Red Bull less competitive.
Specifically, he said: “The car [Mercedes’ W14] is moving in the right direction.
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“I think ultimately it’s likely that – bit by bit – by the end of the year we will probably catch Red Bull, but that’s only because they’re probably already focusing on next year’s car because they’re so far ahead.
“They don’t have to make any changes to this year’s car any more as they’re so far ahead. He’s cruising at 100 points ahead of us.
“I think the FIA should probably put a time when everyone is allowed to start developing on the next year’s car. So August 1, that’s when everybody can start so then no one can get an advantage on the next year, cause that sucks.
“It would make more sense. They should. Say for example you start the season and you know you have a bad car, you can just say I’m not going to bother developing this car and put all this money into next year’s car and have an advantage.”
As Max Verstappen rightly pointed out, Hamilton didn’t seem to mind Mercedes having a huge advantage over the competition when he was effortlessly picking up wins and championships as a result.
To make matters worse, after making a mistake in sprint qualifying on Saturday which saw him knocked out in SQ1, he opted to lay the blame on his team for poor timing.
However, in reality, Hamilton was knocked out because he had a lap time deleted for a track limits violation.
And after the session, a sulking Hamilton claimed that the sprint “doesn’t matter”, as he was clearly disappointed by his performance, though unwilling to take responsibility.
As for the grand prix, the seven-time world champion was continuously complaining about his car and other drivers not being awarded penalties – even though they were – after he was hit with a five second penalty for repeated track limits violations.
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His constant whining even prompted Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff to get on the radio to tell him to focus on driving.
All things considered, the Austrian GP proved yet again that Hamilton isn’t willing to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong at Mercedes.
But when Mercedes were providing him with a dominant car and a second-rate team-mate, he was more than happy to take responsibility for all of the success that came his way.