The problems continue in the Brackley garage, and that is that after it seemed that they had solved in Spain what caused it to be so far from the leaders in the 2022 season, the serious porpoising has returned to the W13.
In the last Monaco Grand Prix, both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell suffered from this rebound effect from free practice, which meant that they could only garner fifth place as the best result thanks to the youngest of the British.
The seven-time world champion, for his part, did not go beyond eighth place, stuck behind Fernando Alonso, and his frustration was more than visible. Two weeks later, already in Azerbaijan, where the eighth round of the calendar is held, the Englishman once again experienced the same sensations as in Monte Carlo with his single-seater.
If in the narrow streets of the Principality he saw how porpoising took over his car again, in Baku it was similar, because Lewis Hamilton did not go beyond 6th and 12th position in the respective free practice sessions on Friday.
“The most difficult thing today was the rebound,” assured the Mercedes driver. “We are reaching great speeds at the end of the straight and hitting the ground a lot, we have the same problems as in the last race.”
At one point, on the long main straight of more than two kilometers in length, the seven-time champion stated on the radio that he could not see the entry line to the pitlane after being warned not to step on that line, which reaffirmed the difficulties that I had.
“We tried something experimental on my car in the second session, it didn’t go very well, but at least we tried it and got some useful data,” said Hamilton.
“We will probably go back to the original settings tomorrow.”
The Englishman was far from the best times of the Ferrari and Red Bull, who commanded this first Friday of tests in Azerbaijan: “I cannot say a specific area that is costing us the difference of 1.3 or 1.6 seconds with respect to to the leaders.”
“A lot of this seems to be on the straight, but we have to look down tonight and find solutions,” said the winningest driver in Formula 1 history.
His teammate, George Russell , also gave his feelings about this day in Baku, and it was not far from what Hamilton said: “It was a difficult day, and it is clear that we were not as competitive as we would have liked.”
“It’s a tough track to get the tires working and in the correct operating window,” the Englishman continued. “Other drivers have been seen to set their best times right at the end of a run, while Ferrari and Red Bull seem to be able to just make it work.”
“At the moment they have a faster car than us, and we are doing everything we can to catch up with them, even if we catch up with the tyres, that is only 50% of the problem, the other 50% is the performance of the car. George Russell added.
“I don’t know what the future holds for this era of cars, but I can’t see us racing like this for the next four years, so it will be necessary for all of us to talk as we are all in the same boat with porpoising. ” the other pilot of the silver arrows.
