Steiner admits he too 'drank the Kool-Aid' in severe Hamilton judgment
Guenther Steiner, the star guest of GPblog’s most recent F1 Today podcast episode, spoke of Lewis Hamilton's "weird" Dutch GP crash, and believes the seven-time world champion is under more pressure than ever.
During the first stint of the Dutch Grand Prix, Hamilton was catching up to George Russell ahead of him in P6.
'The pressure can get to all of us, even Lewis Hamilton'
Somewhere along the lines though, Hamilton's race came to a rather unexpected end after a rare mistake by the seven-time world champion, which surprised even a man who's seen it all in motorsport, like Guenther Steiner himself.
"Normally, Lewis is known to make the least mistakes. That is how he won so many championships. He was so consistent," he begins his assessment in GPblog's F1 Today podcast.
When trying to sniff out the potential causes for the crash, the Italian-American wonders: "I don't know, is it the pressure?
"Whatever it is. It was a weird mistake, in my opinion. It was very weird how it happened.
"I don't know what happened, but I think the pressure can get to all of us, even to Lewis Hamilton," he added.
"There is pressure now at Ferrari, because he's always outperformed by Charles.
'We all drank the Kool-Aid and then it doesn't happen'
"And I think the root of this is when it was announced last year or when it happened last year, the hype was so big."
According to Steiner, everyone in the F1 community "drank the Kool-Aid" of the Hamilton-Ferrari mix and the potential it had.
"And I think we all drank the Kool-Aid, you know, me included, saying, 'the seven-time world champion going to Ferrari.'
"Ferrari, at that time, was on the way up. They were doing very well last year, second half of the season. It was one of their best seasons in the last years.
"You think of this, all the fans think of this, the dream is going to happen.
"There is Lewis Hamilton coming back to Ferrari, getting world championships to Ferrari and his eighth one. And then it doesn't happen," concluded Steiner sternly in his summary of Hamilton's and Ferrari's partnership thus far.
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You can watch and hear the entire podcast with Guenter Steiner here!
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