Mercedes and Red Bull arrived into the 2022 F1 season as the most dominant forces. However, the new regulations saw the two teams go directly to two different levels, where Red Bull shone brightly, and Mercedes were far from their pinnacle. Now, Lewis Hamilton has come out to share that both teams shared equal problems at the start of 2022, but only Max Verstappen’s team could find a solution to that.
Hamilton, speaking about this said to Motorsport Italia, as per Junaid Samodien, “If we look at Red Bull, they did an extraordinary job, but in Bahrain last year they had a bouncing problem and they managed to solve it in that week.”
Uh oh… #F1 #Mercedes #W14 pic.twitter.com/2NlOCbgwRE
— Brad Philpot (@BradleyPhilpot) February 16, 2023
Upon the introduction of new regulations, the new generation of cars saw a unique issue known as porpoising. Even though every team suffered from it due to the ground effect, Mercedes and their W13 suffered the most. This was one of the most prominent reasons that set the Silver Arrows way back.
Even though the Brackley team found its solution in 2023, it was too little too late to find the form. On the other hand, Adrian Newey and his team found the solution within a week. Therefore, they have become the unstoppable force in F1 and have shown more dominance this year, relative to 2022.
Lewis Hamilton emphasized Red Bull’s progress and compared them with their own
Hamilton, along with pointing at how Mercedes took a lot of time to get done with their porpoising issues, also shed light on Red Bull‘s way of development. The British driver focused on how Verstappen’s team developed their car as they were building a wall brick by brick.
Meanwhile, the German outfit had to demolish the wall, and then again build it from scrap. In doing so, they remained a long way behind whereas, Red Bull became stronger than ever.
Another Team record… six 1-2 finishes in 2023 pic.twitter.com/2D0ec1Lxts
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) December 2, 2023
In 2022, the Austrian team took 17 wins in 22 races and took P1 and P3 in the driver’s championship. However, the 2023 season saw Verstappen and Sergio Perez claim 21 wins out of 22 races and dominantly take over P1 and P2 in the standings.
As it stands, many expect Adrian Newey’s team to build on this and remain supreme until 2025. The new 2026 regulations are Mercedes and other teams’ realistic hope of turning the tables. They still have an “Everest” to climb if they are to catch Red Bull anytime soon.
