Lewis Hamilton, bad luck or Mercedes sabotage? “Every set of tires was 2-3 degrees below temperature”

That silence at the end of the race
After securing fourth place at the Canadian Grand Prix, team principal Toto Wolff commented via radio to Lewis Hamilton on the final result: “Lewis, the positive thing is that the car has returned to having performance. Let’s keep it up.” No response from the seven-time world champion, a sign of a rift that adds to the many signals sent by the future Ferrari driver in recent weeks, suggesting – on the driver’s part – that Mercedes is not putting him in the best possible conditions to express his talent.

Coincidence or sabotage?
It is not the first time that Lewis Hamilton, in a half-hearted manner, has suggested strange behavior from the team towards him. “The weekend was going well, then as always in qualifying, the others raise the bar and I can’t. Suddenly I’m missing two tenths and I don’t know why,” the English champion explained in Monaco, adding cryptically: “Beating Russell here was difficult and I think it will be all year.”

Speculations that were strongly rejected by team principal Toto Wolff: “Mercedes has always treated its drivers fairly and transparently, only in Abu Dhabi in 2016 did we intervene asking Hamilton not to go so slow on purpose to allow opponents to attack Nico Rosberg.” But it is also true that in the Monaco race Hamilton’s strategy was not optimal, as the undercut failed: “It was a communication error between us on the pit wall and we made a mistake,” Toto Wolff cut short.

What happened in Montreal
In Canada, Lewis Hamilton – on a track where he had won 7 times and taken 6 poles – shone until the crucial moment of qualifying, Q3. The 39-year-old Englishman finished Saturday only in seventh place, his worst qualifying result ever in Montreal. “The car didn’t feel the same as the rest of the weekend,” the driver observed, not finding a clear explanation from Wolff: “We don’t understand what happened with Lewis.”

Then came the race, with Hamilton finishing in fourth place, but he found himself on the track in the final stretch of the race on Hard tires, against his teammate George Russell on Mediums, who indeed easily overtook him, taking the podium. “If I was penalized by the tire choice? Yes, if I had known they were putting on Hards, I would have stayed out. I thought I would have the same tires as George.” – the former Ferrari driver pointed out at the end of the Canadian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton then explained that he understood what went wrong on Saturday: “The tires worked all weekend, but then we got to qualifying and every time I went out of the pits, for some reason they were always below temperature. Every set was 2 or 3 degrees lower than it should have been. I guess something happened with the tire blankets, we need to be more careful.” In short, a series of unfortunate coincidences or real sabotage by Mercedes for a move to Ferrari?