Lewis Hamilton accused by David Coulthard as George Russell superiority point made

Lewis Hamilton will leave Mercedes and his teammate, George Russell, behind at the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season, as the seven-time world champion has agreed to join Ferrari

Formula 1 legend David Coulthard claims that Lewis Hamilton is "mentally" already at Ferrari, with Mercedes teammate George Russell getting off to a much better start to 2024.

Little over a month before the new season, Hamilton shocked the world of F1 by announcing that he'd be joining rivals Ferrari at the end of the campaign, bringing to an end his 11-year spell with Mercedes. But the seven-time world champion has only managed eight points from the first two Grands Prix of the season, with his struggles from 2023 bleeding into the new term.

Meanwhile, teammate Russell sits on 18 points and is currently fourth in the driver standings after both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. That's led fellow Brit Coulthard to accuse Hamilton, 39, of mentally checking-out.

"He's just not been settled with this car," Coulthard told Channel 4. "And you can tell, you know, George is just honing the lap time right now and you can feel that Lewis is on the backfoot.

"What we do know though, if he does find a window of performance, then you know he will deliver. But right now, it's looking like his decision to head off to Ferrari, mentally, he is already there."

Hamilton, however, claims that he's fully focussed on ending his time with Mercedes in the right manner, saying after his move to Ferrari was confirmed: "I am 100 per cent committed to delivering the best performance I can this season and making my last year with the Silver Arrows one to remember."

But the 39-year-old confessed after slumping to ninth in Saudi Arabia last Sunday: "I wouldn't say I'm having fun. I'm racing for ninth, so I definitely can't say that. Finishing ninth is definitely not fun. But I am enjoying the actual racing part. And I was hunting and I was pushing as hard as I could, I was maximising everything I had with the car, I was right on the edge.

"It was just unfortunately really lacking performance in the high-speed, where they were walking all over us. But there are positives. The car is good in low speed. We have to add a lot of load in the high-speed. I think if we were able to do that then I think it puts us in the fight. But we've got some work to do."

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff acknowledges that Mercedes' car hasn't been up to scratch in recent years, meaning Hamilton has drifted further and further away from an elusive eighth world title. He and Russell - 13 years his junior - will be back racing in Melbourne next weekend at the Australian Grand Prix, a race which Wolff hopes to see an improvement in.

"It's been two-and-a-half years that we are chasing this fundamental change," Wolff admitted. "It's been two years that there is something we need to spot, and that's the thing to unlock. We have just got to work.

"It's not through lack of trying. We've pushed so hard and we’re going to give it a massive, massive go now in the next week, with more data to understand.

"We are going to come back to Melbourne strong. We are on a mission on this one. And I am 100 per cent sure that we are going to unlock that performance gap."