Mercedes and its W13 for 2022 have been among the most affected by the porpoising phenomenon, which has left them, at least for now, behind Ferrari and Red Bull.
Hamilton and teammate George Russell were able to complete a “damage limit weekend” in third and fourth at the Bahrain GP after both Red Bulls retired.
However, the seven-time world champion has warned that Mercedes “cannot trust every weekend” on issues such as the fuel failure that hit the Red Bulls.
The Briton, contesting his 180th grand prix with Mercedes this weekend beating Michael Schumacher’s races at Ferrari , says he is not too stressed by his team’s early performance.
“We have problems and we are fighting to fix them. There is a lot of potential in our car. We are just trying to work as hard as we can to rectify them as quickly as possible,” he declared.
“I have no doubt that I have the best group of people behind me to find solutions and fix it and get the performance out.”
“So right now I don’t feel too stressed. But I want to get into the battle as soon as possible. We have to move as fast as we can.”
Asked how much Mercedes was losing by increasing the car’s ride height to combat porpoising, Hamilton said: “I haven’t been given exact numbers, but I know it’s a lot.”
“The cars in front of us, for example, have an incredible amount of downforce at low speed.
While Hamilton is confident of a change of course from Mercedes, he downplayed his expectations for the Jeddah street circuit as he arrives just days after Bahrain.
He added: “We have worked a lot in the last three days.”
“I’m so proud of my team for just keeping their heads down, staying focused and looking at the huge amount of data out there.”
“We’re aware of the issues we’re having, but as far as what’s causing it, we’re just trying to figure it out and see how we can rectify it without losing performance.”
“Because there is so little time between races, we don’t expect a big difference this weekend.”
Hamilton added that he was excited by the “super fast” Jeddah track, although the long straights “might not be too much fun” given the porpoising.
He also relishes the opportunity to test the changes to the car in Saudi Arabia, saying: “From a driver’s perspective, it’s exciting when you get into the car just trying something new and hoping to get some performance out of it.
