Damon Hill urges Lewis Hamilton not to “slack off” in final Mercedes season

1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill has advised Lewis Hamilton not to “slack off too much” in his final year with Mercedes.

Hamilton was out-qualified and out-raced by Mercedes teammate George Russell at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

It meant an unusual trend between the pair continued with Russell out-qualifying Hamilton in every qualifying session held under the floodlights since Abu Dhabi 2022.

Mercedes were the third-fastest team in Bahrain as they struggled with an overheating engine, costing them a shot at challenging Ferrari for the podium.

2024 will be Hamilton’s final year with Mercedes and Hill has warned the seven-time world champion of complacency.

“Do you remember when he’d sewn up the championship [in 2015], beat Nico [Rosberg], and then Nico won the next three races and then won the championship the following year? You know, you cannot afford to back off too much,” Hill said on the F1 Nation Podcast.

“I think Lewis has got an abundance of talent, he could probably turn it on whenever he wants to, it’ll always be there – but it won’t. That’s the problem, it won’t always be there, because he’s getting on a bit.”

Hamilton has typically started seasons on the backfoot, particularly against Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas.

Hill feels that history could be repeating itself as he arrived in Bahrain “quite relaxed”.

“And so, there is an element of, I hope, he doesn’t slack off too much this year,” he added.

“He needs to really, this year, establish everything about him and if there’s opportunities – and I know he’ll do it – but he needs to not get outqualified by George every race, he needs to get up there and get the best results for Mercedes and then leave with a spring in his step, so that the challenge is still there.

“He might have been coming here [to Bahrain] quite relaxed, but he does tend to start a season quite relaxed, and then he just turns it up, after the summer break he comes back a little bit more angry, and the poor old team-mates get ground into the dirt. So we’ll see.”