Lewis Hamilton hits out at FIA for F1 rule changes

Lewis Hamilton has continued his largely frustrated mood at the start of the Formula One season, after hitting out at the FIA's rule changes.

It has not been a particularly good start to the year for Hamilton, and the whole of the Mercedes team, as they've looked well off the pace at the front of the grid.

Even after the first race of 2023, the seven time world drivers' champion was complaining about the job the engineers had done on the car, claiming they'd failed to listen to them.

Toto Wolff. backed the driver, whose contract is due to expire at the end of the year, reportedly plunging the constructors into a 'civil war.'

Things at least improved for the team last weekend, with George Russell qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix in second, and Hamilton in third.

The race didn't go according to plan for Russell, but his more experienced teammate managed to finish second, behind title leader Max Verstappen.

That result didn't really improve Hamilton's mood, as he was left utterly baffled with why his team weren't in position to celebrate with him after the result.

And now the 38-year-old has turned his attention to FIA, calling them out on their rule changes, claiming they haven't helped with overtaking.

"Nope, it’s the same as the past," the English driver told Motorsport Week, when asked about driving in dirty air behind other cars.

"I think last year for us was pretty bad with the bouncing, because you’ve got the turbulence and the bouncing, whereas this year we don’t have the bouncing, so we have less issues following cars.

"I think it’s still a little bit better than the previous generation of cars. But hasn’t delivered everything that it said it would, so got some improvements to make hopefully for the future."

Hamilton finished second behind Verstappen. Image: Alamy

Under the old regulations, cars found it difficult to overtake due to the fact that driving behind someone else, in their 'dirty air,' badly affected the pace in the car behind.

The rules were changed last season but the cars then had issues with 'purposing,' which led to the cars 'bouncing' across the track, an issue Mercedes in particular suffered from.

This season a new tweak in the regulations has got rid of that issue but seems to have reverted the cars back to the overtaking problems of previous eras.

The Bahrain Grand Prix was a great example of that, with only 30 overtakes happening throughout the race, less than half from the previous year.

Hamilton isn't the only one who's had issues either, with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc bringing up his issues following the Saudi Arabia race.

"I could have gone a bit faster, but when I was closer than a second to Carlos [Sainz], you felt the turbulence of the car in front of you," he said at the time.

Verstappen, and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, are the only ones who don't seem to be having any problems, having won all three races between them so far.