Lewis Hamilton had a very difficult 2022 season, where had to endure a win-less campaign for the first time in his career. Heading into this year, the seven-time world champion was hoping for a strong car, that would help him push for his eighth crown.
Unfortunately for Hamilton, the W14 is equally, if not more difficult to drive than its predecessor. In Bahrain, the Silver Arrows fielded what seemed like the fourth fastest car on the grid, and even though they made a little progress in Jeddah by fighting close to the podium places, they were still far off from where they wanted to be.
There are lots of areas Mercedes could improve their car in, but there is one key aspect that they need to focus on. As reported by Motorsport, Hamilton feels that downforce is the biggest Achilles heel of the Brackley-based outfit. Handling the rear of the car is extremely challenging, and since it is not stable, he has trouble in attacking or pushing harder.
Lewis Hamilton problems acknowledged by Mercedes boss
Mercedes was a team that was dominating F1 for the majority of the turb0-hybdrid era, winning every single constructors’ championship title between 2014 and 2021. As a result, their recent struggles have been hard on the entire team.
Team principal Toto Wolff insists that they are working hard to rectify their mistakes, and that they’ll leave no stones unturned in finding out where they are lacking in. Talking about Hamilton’s problems, the Austrian acknowledged that there is something fundamentally wrong with the rear of the W14.
“That’s not something that can be cured quickly,” he said. The drivers are the most important sensors in the car and if they tell us that’s what they feel, we need to consider that.”
Hamilton not at 100% with his car
Hamilton is arguably one of the greatest F1 drivers of all time, and has broken just about every record there is to break in the sport. The only record he is chasing currently is winning his eighth world championship and move clear of Michael Schumacher as the F1 driver with the most titles of all time.
💬 “I think we saw some performance gains compared to Bahrain which is encouraging. It was a strong drive from George and a great recovery from Lewis to get solid points.”
Toto, George, Lewis and Shov debrief the #SaudiArabianGP 👇
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 19, 2023
However, with the mechanical package he has at his disposal, that doesn’t look possible. Hamilton admitted that he’s not 100% comfortable with his car, and at 95%, it is tough to aim for wins.
Hamilton saw some positives at the Saudi Arabian GP, and feels that Ferrari being behind them in the pecking order makes things better for them. However, he wants the team to focus on themselves heading into the upcoming races.
