The start of the 2022 Formula 1 season is not being easy for Lewis Hamilton, who continues to suffer from the problems he suffered in last week’s tests in Bahrain. The British driver jumped onto the Sakhir track in the hope that Mercedes had resolved the porpoising effect that he complained about so much, but it seems that, despite efforts to alleviate it, the Germans have not achieved the objective to be competitive.
The seven-time champion finished in seventh place in the first free practice session, and in ninth in the second free practice session, more than seven tenths and one second respectively off the fastest time.
His teammate, George Russell, who makes his debut as a works driver for the German team, was fourth in both sessions, but Hamilton is not worried about that. Before FP2 the team was seen fitting the seven-time champion to the same flat-bottom setup that Russell was running, and when asked about it, Lewis said: “I haven’t been looking at George’s car.”
“We were trying different things,” the Mercedes man continued. “I haven’t followed what he was doing, I’ve been trying to focus on the problems that I have on my side.”
Despite showing no concern, Hamilton makes visible the difficulties he is having in this 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix: “We have had small problems in the past, small compared to this year.”
“We’ve had much, much smaller setbacks, and this season we have to deal with bigger ones. Anything we do to try and figure it out won’t really change, so it looks like it’s going to take longer, and I don’t see a short-term solution.” English.
Mercedes will have to work much harder to solve everything that does not allow the full potential of the radical W13 to be unleashed, which impressed everyone on the first day of pre-season testing, but which deflated as the days went by and did not set the best records.
Those of Brackley hope to solve these problems that delay them so much, but it seems that they have made a mistake on the way to develop the car with which they seek their ninth consecutive constructors’ title , something that no team has done in the history of Formula 1.
