Lewis Hamilton Struggles When Races Are Not Perfect, Nico Rosberg Says

Lewis Hamilton is certain to bounce back sooner rather than later from the latest slump that saw him fail to win any of the first three races of the 2018 Formula 1 season, according to former teammate Nico Rosberg.

It’s the first time since the introduction of the V6 Turbo era in 2014 that Mercedes have failed to win after the first three races with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel taking wins in the first two rounds in Australia and Bahrain and Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo winning in China on Sunday.

Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton looked favorites coming into the first race of the season, and it seemed as though everything was going according to plan in the first half of the race in Australia, but a strategy error owing to a computer glitch saw them gift the race to Vettel.

If the first race was due to a strategy error, the second and third were purely based on performance. Ferrari proved to be quicker than Mercedes in Bahrain and China, while Red Bull chanced upon the win at the Shanghai International Circuit owing to a clever strategy call again after Valtteri Bottas was leading the race and looking favorite to take Mercedes’ first win.

Rosberg suggested prior to the start of the season that the only way to beat Hamilton was to take advantage of his inconsistency during the course of the campaign. The Briton brushed off the comments ahead of the first race, but it is clearly the case after he admitted following the race in China that work needed to be done to find out why Mercedes could not match their rivals at the moment.

The four-time world champion did make up some ground in the F1 Drivers’ Championship battle with Vettel and is currently just nine-points behind, but he is yet to win a race. He finished second in Australia, third in Bahrain after starting ninth due to a gearbox change and had to settle for fourth in China.

"When it doesn't go perfectly, he starts to lose that edge a little bit and a touch of motivation and then just struggles for a while," Rosberg said, as quoted by BBC Sport. "You have to maximize those races because Lewis always comes back."

Hamilton started the season as the favorite to win his fifth drivers’ championship title, but is now joint favorite with Ferrari’s Vettel. However, Red Bull Racing showed in the previous race that they have a car capable of challenging for wins on a regular basis which also makes them a contender in a season which has a record equalling 21-races.

The F1 juggernaut’s next port of call is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix — the scene of the most controversial race in 2017. It is the race the 2017 title battle between Hamilton and Vettel took an ugly turn when the latter intentionally collided with the Mercedes driver.

The street circuit with one of the longest straights in F1 should suit the Mercedes car, but the low downforce nature on most of the track will also suit the Red Bull and Ferrari package making for an interesting race yet again.