LEWIS: WE’RE NOT AT THE RACES

Hamilton still gloomy about Mercedes hopes after trailing way behind in Miami

LEWIS HAMILTON believes Mercedes are standing still and sees no signs of the improvement needed to challenge for 2022 honours.

After the seven-time champ finished sixth and George Russell fifth in Miami, there was a lot of paddock talk about the team being close to making a step forward.

But a downbeat Hamilton is having none of that, and said: “Unfortunately not. We were the same speed as we were in the first race. We have not improved in these five races.

“I’m hopeful that at some stage we will, but we have just got to keep trying, keep working hard.

“The porpoising – when the car bounces up and down at speed – was not as bad in Miami, it can vary from track to track, from race to race.

“It wasn’t really bad in Miami... but we were just not fast.”

To make matters worse for Hamilton, an unfortunately-timed safety car meant new team-mate Russell was able to use fresh tyres to overtake him in the closing stages and once again finish ahead.

Hamilton has only beaten his 24-year-old fellow Englishman in one of this year’s Grands Prix and admits that not fighting at the front has given him a new outlook.

He added: “This is still racing, but just from a different perspective, a different point of view.

“You are always trying to go forward but it’s difficult when you cannot go forward and are just kind of sitting.

“But it is what it is and it is an experience, that is for sure.” Hamilton, who has already written off his hopes of winning a record-breaking eighth title this year, lies sixth in the drivers’ standings, 68 points behind leader Charles Leclerc and 23 behind Russell, who sits in fourth place with 59. But even though Russell has finished in the top five in all of the 2022 races, he shares most of Hamilton’s gloomy thoughts about the car.

Russell said: “Toto Wolff is throwing the word ‘diva’ around a lot about the car, but that is an understatement because it is so unpredictable.

“There is a fast car in there, but when the thing starts bouncing, going into corners, it is a killer to drive.”

Both Hamilton and Russell are likely to be buoyed by Wolff’s latest debrief, as he conceded Mercedes were miles off the pace set by the Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen, who won in Miami, and Sergio Perez.

The Mercedes team chief (left) said: “We are the third fastest team, but we are in no-man’s land. We are flying in the fog a little bit.

“It is clear there is potential in the car but we just don’t know how to unlock it.

“It is a car that is just not comfortable or nice to drive, or predictable to drive.”

And from what Hamilton says, that seems unlikely to change when race six takes place in Barcelona in less than a fortnight’s time.