Hamilton, defeated after Friday: "A disaster, the worst day"

In the midst of numerous problems mainly related to porpoising , Mercedes spends the Friday days of each grand prix looking for which way to go, and testing different configurations on its drivers’ cars.

Lewis Hamilton accepted the role of being the ‘guinea pig’ and receiving the updates looking for more performance, and this start of the Canadian GP was no different.

The German team tried to exploit a new area of design freedom allowed by the FIA after the technical directive against porpoising, and the seven-time champion’s W13 team with a double bottom. However, after falling half a second behind his teammate in FP2 and outside the top 10, Hamilton said it had been a disaster.

“It was more or less like every Friday for us: trying a lot of different things,” #44 began. “For my part I ran an experimental floor, which didn’t work. Nothing we do to this car usually seems to work, so we’re trying different setups.”

“George and I used very different setups in FP2 just to see if one works and one doesn’t. I’ll wait to see how it went for him, but for me it was a disaster.”

After being seventh in FP1 less than a tenth behind George Russell, Hamilton considered that they took a step back with the tests of the second session and hinted that we already have to think about 2023: “It’s as if the car got worse, as if would get more and more unhappy the more we do to him. So we’ll keep working on it. And it is what it is, I think this is the car for this year. So we just have to suck it up and work hard to make a better car for him. next year”.

Looking for something positive from this day, Hamilton admits that at least they already know some direction they shouldn’t go: “Well, we’ve crossed things out, we’ve tried lots and lots of things, and they don’t work. So we have to go and find something else And yes, we’re a long way off. But it’s what we expected with this car.”

The Englishman, in 2019, managed to overtake Michael Schumacher as the driver with the most victories in Canada, no less than seven. However, now he has to live a totally different face. Having to battle with a less competitive car, the Briton claimed it was his worst day there.

“One touch of the curb and the car goes flying. It’s too stiff. And here, you have to be able to use the curbs, so it’s very, very complicated. It’s not the Montreal that I know, that I’m used to and that I’ve experienced all my life. race. It’s the worst I’ve ever felt with any car here.”

“So hopefully on Friday night we can try to make some changes. But basically it’s just the fundamentals of this car: it is what it is. And we’re going to suffer.”

Finally, when asked how difficult it is, he replied: “It’s just a monumental struggle all the time to keep the car off the wall. in different directions. So you’re just trying to control a car that jumps, jumps, grabs, jumps, grabs. It’s hard, so it keeps you on your toes.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, Zhou Guanyu, Alfa Romeo C42