The 2022 Formula 1 season has been a puzzle for the Mercedes team, and it is not for less, since they have gone from dominating the entire hybrid era from the beginning, to being a team in the middle zone with aspirations to catch up with Ferrari and RedBull.
The radical design of the W13 with shortened sidepods was the talk of the winter tests in Bahrain, and although the teams feared another episode of the Silver Arrows taking over the podiums weekend after weekend, the surprise jumped in Sakhir.
Only a third position for Lewis Hamilton that came after the double retirement of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez calmed the storm that later broke out in the German garage. The seven-time world champion filled the broadcast radios with repeated criticism of his car, all in relation to the same problem.
Porpoising , present in most of the new generation 2022 single-seaters, has made a dent in the performance of the Englishman, who has been far surpassed by his teammate, George Russell, although the appointment in Spain could be a before and a after.
With a great comeback, everything indicated that the usual Hamilton was back, but on the first day of practice in Monaco a rebound effect appeared that the seven-time champion had never experienced.
When the porpoising of his Mercedes was put on the table in the Principality, he ventured to explain what he felt: “First of all, it’s the bumpiest track I’ve ever driven on, so that makes it difficult, but then our car bounces around a lot.”
“It’s different, it’s a different rebound than what we’ve experienced so far,” he said. “It’s just at low speed so it’s not aero, I think it’s the bumps that are making it worse, but otherwise it’s not like I have to learn the circuit any differently.
“It’s fighting the car to put everything back together, and it’s like ‘ wow, holy cow ‘. It’s very different, I don’t remember experiencing it like that before,” continued Hamilton.
“The lockup I was having on the car, it’s on the ground, so we’re going to have to figure out how to get around that with the setup. And then down the straight, yes there are some bigger rebounds, but like I said, it’s different than when we had this before,” he added. “It’s a rebound, but it’s a different kind of feel, there’s like 100 hits on a single straightaway, I don’t know what it’s like for others, or if they’re experiencing the same as us, but it’s like a bumpy rollercoaster ride.”
The seven-time world champion could barely get past 10th position in Free Practice 1, and in the second practice session he was 12th , behind his teammate in both and without the rhythm to be able to fight for a good position in the standings.
His situation is very different from other years with these cars, and he compares it to his beginnings in Formula 1: “I remember that in the past, in my first year here, it was an agile single-seater, it was much better.”
“Now we have these super-heavy cars, which are heavier than ever, and the braking zones are different. It’s crazy that in 2022 the tracks are not smooth when they have been resurfaced, technology is still against us,” he said. English. “Like I said, it’s hard to do a lap, but I think we’ve improved in that session, and it doesn’t feel like when you’re trying to do a turn, the grip is terrible.
“Your eyes are popping out of their sockets, so we have to work through the night to try to fix that. As it seemed, I didn’t think we were as fast as the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, our battle is trying to stay ahead of the McLaren right now,” the Mercedes driver said.
