Lewis Hamilton's ex-Mercedes teammate has harshly criticized the seven-time world champion for continually making excuses regarding his struggles in 2024.
During the build-up to the Chinese GP, Hamilton criticized his detractors who "talk sh*t" about him. Despite this, he delivered a commendable performance, securing second place in both the sprint qualifier and Saturday's brief race.
Nevertheless, by the time of the actual qualifying session on Saturday afternoon, Hamilton had plummeted to an abysmal eighteenth place, swiftly attributing his poor performance to a trial car configuration.
"We have to (do that) at the moment," the 39-year-old remarked.
"In this sprint, George (Russell) and I had very similar cars, but then we tried to experiment - I'm one way, he's the other."
In a conversation with Sky Deutschland in Shanghai, Nico Rosberg, Hamilton's previous teammate and rival, expressed his belief that the British racer was simply searching for a convenient scapegoat.
"Lewis is 1-4 behind Russell in qualifying this year, and every time he says it's the setup. To me that's an excuse. Clearly he made a mistake - one that shouldn't happen to a seven-time time world champion."
George Russell appeared to support Rosberg's view that Hamilton was just making excuses, denying Hamilton's assertion that their setups were "massively" different during qualifying.
"We both went in the same direction," Russell explained. "There's only a slight difference. We both changed our setups a lot after the sprint, but in the same direction."
Rosberg suggested that Hamilton is currently undergoing "a difficult phase," amid speculations about whether Ferrari made the correct decision in letting go of the in-form Carlos Sainz for 2025.
"He's also only half a part of the Mercedes family now," the German stated. "At some point, Toto (Wolff) will be saying he's not allowed to look at the data anymore."
Former Red Bull racer Robert Doornbos considers the scenario "embarrassing" for both Hamilton and Mercedes, while Ziggo Sport commentator Olav Mol remarked, "The difference between Russell and Hamilton is far too big."
"You don't often see them in a pair like at Red Bull or McLaren."
