The 2022 Formula 1 season has not gone as expected by Lewis Hamilton, who disappeared from social media to focus on coming back stronger after his loss to Max Verstappen.
However, the performance of the Mercedes W13 has not accompanied, and only an unexpected podium made up the low level that he was showing compared to his new partner in Brackley, George Russell.
The young British driver has surprisingly led the German team at the beginning of the year, even reaching second place in the world championship after his podium in Australia with a car far from Ferrari and Red Bull.
Hoping to close in on the best at the Spanish Grand Prix following updates to the car, Hamilton tried to overtake Russell in Saturday’s decisive qualifying, but the seven-time champion was sixth behind his compatriot who was fourth.
When the seven-time world champion was asked by the media if his team-mate was ahead of him, Hamilton said: “I can’t, I can’t at the moment.”
“I’m struggling with the car. In the qualifying session I couldn’t control the rear of the car,” said the Englishman after signing a 1:19.512 , more than seven tenths off Charles Leclerc’s pole position.
This situation, which the seven-time champion is used to having so little, was insisted on, and this 2022 was compared with his years at McLaren when he shared a box with Jenson Button.
“I don’t remember those times,” said Hamilton, who seemed unwilling to continue talking about his teammates in Formula 1.
Although the Englishman has setbacks with the rear of the W13, he remains hopeful that Mercedes will be able to include more improvements in his car in the coming races, he will even be able to fight more in Monaco, as he himself assures.
“I trust the team 100%,” he continued. “I know we’ve now taken that step, and that’s something we haven’t seen in five tests, we’re finally seeing that we have an idea of the direction we need to go.”
“And now we just have to wait for the engineers and aerodynamicists to come up with some more parts that we can progress with. Places like Monaco should be like that, it’s much slower corners so hopefully we’ll be better, that’s positive.” Hamilton confirmed.
“In Q2 we were the fastest. So that’s a glimmer of hope for the team,” he said. “We don’t have the porpoising on the straightaways, which is a big, big difference.”
“But we still have some rebound in turns 3 and 9, so we still have to improve, but the car is much better. It’s great to see that we take a step forward,” said the Mercedes driver.
