HAMILTON: MERCEDES PAYING PRICE FOR POOR 2022 START
Lewis Hamilton has conceded that the Mercedes Formula 1 team’s ongoing struggles are a culmination of the poor foundations it laid at the start of the ground effect era. Mercedes entered F1’s latest regulations as the team to beat having won an unprecedented eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships between 2014 and 2021. However, the German marque has been unable to replicate that success since, accruing one win as Red Bull has taken up the mantle as the sport’s pre-eminent force. Despite abandoning the failed ‘zeropod’ solution and overhauling the car concept on its W15, Mercedes has endured its worst start to a season since 2011 this term. Asked whether Mercedes had been able to conclude the reasons it has failed to nail the current regulations, Hamilton answered: “We just haven’t yet, it’s not over yet. But I think with this sport it’s just naturally difficult. If you start on the right foot and the first brick down has got a good foundation you can just continue to build on it, and I think that’s what we had experienced in the past years. Whereas when we started with this generation of car we started with five bricks, good weight, we had to knock it down and try again, knock it down and try again, and take off that performance basically. We made all these changes, tried everything, sometimes lost our way, sometimes then found it and then lost it again, I think it’s just very complex.”
Hamilton has praised the collective spirit and values that Mercedes continues to retain, though, despite its ongoing slump continuing into a third consecutive season.
“I’ve been in the team a long time so I know pretty much everything about the team, so I wouldn’t say I’ve learned anything new during this time,” the Briton said. “The team has been incredibly resilient. There’s people here who have been here 20+ years who have been through the bad times and the good times. There’s people who have joined over the period of success that we’ve had and only knew the good times that there’s been in the team, and now are experiencing the difficult times.”