LEWIS STUCK IN SLOW LANE
It still hasn’t got any faster says Hamilton of ‘diva’ car
LEWIS HAMILTON believes his Mercedes team are standing still – and sees no signs of the improvement needed to challenge for honours.
After Hamilton finished sixth and George Russell fifth in Miami, there was a lot of paddock talk about Mercedes being close to making a step forward.
But a downbeat Hamilton is having none of that, saying: “Unfortunately not. We were the same speed as we were in the first race.We’ve just got to keep trying. 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, to 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 Russell was able to use fresh tyres to overtake his teammate in the closing stages and once again finish ahead of the seven-time world champion.
The 37-year old has only beaten his 24-year-old running partner in one of this year’s grands prix. And Hamilton admits that not fighting at the front has given him a new outlook, saying: “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 can’t 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 recordbreaking eighth title this year, lies sixth in the drivers’ standings, 68 points behind leader Charles Leclerc and 23 behind Russell, who is fourth with 59.
But even though Russell has finished in the top five in all of 2022’s races, he shares most of Hamilton’s gloomy thoughts about the car. The youngster 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.”
And both Hamilton and Russell are unlikely to be buoyed by Wolff’s debrief, as he conceded that Mercedes were miles off the pace set by the Ferraris of
Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, and the Red Bulls of Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, who won in Miami.
Mercedes team principal Wolff 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 not comfortable, or nice, 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.