Having been a lap from becoming an F1 sporting legend with 8 driver titles, Lewis Hamilton is having to come to terms with the fact his team have designed a ‘pig’ of a car for 2022. The biggest regulation changes for a couple of decades have seen Mercedes lose their uber dominant position and at best perform like the third best team behind Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.
At each F1 race we hear explanations from the various Brackley apologists as to how they are coming to terms with their ‘difficult’ car and how THIS weekend will be better.
But quite evidently, the car is not improving. The best performances for the W13 in terms of qualifying lap time and race pace have been at the two circuits where the team tested extensively pre-season.
This is no coincidence. Clearly when Mercedes have oodles of data, and they can better optimise their difficult car at these circuits. But one swallow does not make a summer.
The F1 races in Bahrain and Barcelona have in reality been a false dawn for Mercedes. The latest example in Spain was where Mercedes and their drivers felt they had made a big step forward. A week later, Lewis was 1.2s off the pace of the pole sitter in Monaco.
Let’s be honest.The season is now a third of the way through its schedule and the W13 looks as though it has no chance of winning a race.
When questioned about abandoning the ‘zero side-pod’ concept both Toto Wolff and Lewis Hamilton have rejected this as a course for future development.
“I think we need to find out what is wrong with this car before we make another car”, commented Hamilton this week. “If we started making another car we could easily get it wrong. I think its about understanding [this car] fully, which we haven’t done yet.”
Lewis adds this understanding will “give us a path of where to go”.
Despite the regulations being similar between 2022 and 20223, the F1 cars will develop considerably. The reality is a third of the 2022 season has now passed and Mercedes is further behind the competition at the tracks where they haven’t had extensive testing. Surely the ‘no side pod’ design is a fail?
Yet the F1 Mercedes team is stubborn and refuses to give up on their car design philosophy. If this car design is doomed then Mercedes need to be quickly on with a new approach to be able to compete at the front in 2023.
Lewis Hamilton is bravely staying committed to the Mercedes cause despite being hammered by his team mate.
How long can this go on?
Surely as did Schumacher, Raikkonen and Alonso – a Sabbatical is on the cards for Hamilton as he gets frustrated with his team’s inability to provide him with a race winning car.
Yes, a ten year-long sabbatical of Ham is what F1 fans deserve. Hopefully, by that time, Formula 1 will have returned to the decent sport that it was before the arrival of Lebastalier.
Stop mentioning 8th driver title. He didn’t get it. Like all the previous champions you stop counting if it hasn’t happened
Seems a sore point for you when they mention 8 times. Was it the way the other person won it that makes you happy? Sadly the rest of us know he was cheated by Masi and RB FIA have already admitted human error on Masis behalf. If they were hoping best they would also have handled it better straight after the race. Safety car finish was ok when we did 3 laps at Spa in the wet for Verstappen. But seemed only way Verstappen could win was with help. We all know MB will eventually come good and Hamilton will be back. Those that hate him because of his race, nationality or just because of his success will once again have to endure him.
Hamilton should be grateful he had a dominant car and a not so great 2nd driver, this year apart from Mercedes have an average car his team mate is demolition him, coming ahead of the ‘ great’ LM in ever race, last year RB had an average car no way near the speed of Mercedes and they still beat LM
So, how do you arrive at the definitive conclusion that the no side pods is the cause of the W13’s failure? Is not it only one of the variables that have to be considered? So, LH would be right to ask that they first understand the problems with the W13 before embarking on the design of a new car. That shows the methodical mind of an 8 times World Champion.
An 8th WDC was not going to be decisive for HAM “becoming a “Legend””. 8 WDCs is not the criterion, if I did there is one. I mean, most followers of F1 would consider many a driver with 0 WDCs “Legends” of the sport.
My take on Merc is that they are beginning to experience the negative effects of letting wokeness and an overemphasis on diversity take root in their hiring policy. They have lost a considerable number of disillusioned staff to rivals like Red Bull Powertrains. Worse, many of the diversity hires have been retained resulting in an operation less competent than before, but, ironically, more bloated and less lean than their competitors. In the era of financial regs., those are too many organisational inefficiencies to negotiate. Their off-track constraints are showing on track.
HAM has not misunderstood the circumstances in which the reigning WCCs find themselves. He just isn’t bothered to put in the work if wins and poles are not on the cards. RUS is putting in the work and is being duly rewarded. He is currently the performance benchmark. It’s a crying shame Wolff is so loathe to criticise HAM as it is resulting in too much wasted effort listening to the champ’s moaning and, evidently, fairly useless input on car development.
A sabbatical requires there to be a clear path to a winning car. I reckon Merc have lost too many good heads for that to be on the cards. I reckon a whimpering end to a formidable career is what’s more likely for HAM. He is currently running the very real risk of destroying his storied legacy within a single season.
How long can Wolff and his co-owners continue to justify paying HAM the top wage on the grid, 8x or more that paid to RUS, his better performing teammate? How long will his sponsors continue to back a driver not putting in the work?
Thejudge13 and fellow accomplices in the comments, as I read your comments it seems your hate for Hamilton comes from very DEEP WITHIN, seems like it’s personal, like Nico Rosberg personal….. are you guys okay?
This judge guy gets so giddy when he sees Hamilton fall, his articles about him always have some kind of typo or fact error, lol. Love these hate articles though, they show me how NOT to be as a follower of Any sport.
Point out those factual errors than. Put your Valls where your mouth is!