Hamilton 'seething' over Mercedes pain - Schumacher

Formula 1 race winner Ralf Schumacher believes Lewis Hamilton is "seething" over Mercedes' lack of competitiveness.

The seven-time World Champion has failed to secure a race win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with the Silver Arrows only securing one victory in that time courtesy of George Russell's maiden F1 triumph in Brazil last year.

Whilst last season's W13 was plagued with issues, the current challenger followed the same design philosophy which Mercedes is expected to ditch - within reason given budget cap restrictions - at the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

During Mercedes' struggles, Aston Martin has emerged as Red Bull's closest challengers, though a Gulf remains between the Milton Keynes-based outfit and the rest of the grid.

Speaking in his Sky Deutschland column, Schumacher outlined Mercedes as the team most capable of closing that divide.

"Mercedes in particular could be a force to be reckoned with again after the updates but I don't have quite as much confidence in the other teams," said Schumacher.

"Mercedes is coming to Europe with a completely new concept - I expect a significant improvement, otherwise, they'll have a real problem.

"Then [if there is no improvement] it's not just about the concept, but also about internal problems with wrong goals and wrong standards that have been set. But I don't expect that to happen with the experience Mercedes has."

'He wants the attention'

Mercedes has been forced into extensive experimentation since the start of last year with Hamilton and Russell often forced to use vastly different set-ups during first practice sessions and often leaving each driver on the back foot on numerous occasions.

Russell finishing atop the intra-team battle last term would have only added to the frustrations and addressing Hamilton's mood after finishing behind his teammate in Miami, Schumacher added: "[He] is seething at the moment. He's not used to not winning.

"He wants the attention. In Miami, he finished behind his teammate George Russell. That's [the] maximum penalty for Hamilton."