Hamilton: “There are a lot of things I do not want to see next year”
After a very difficult start to the season, Hamilton spoke about his W13. He mentioned finding a lot of flaws in his car that he wouldn't want to see again on his future single-seater in 2023.
This is not the season start Lewis Hamilton was hoping for. After 7 years of domination with Mercedes, the British driver finds himself in a very delicate situation, with a car that is very difficult to drive and far from the expected performance level for a team of this caliber. Struggling with a lot of bouncing and a temperamental rear end, the seven-time world champion believes he needs to dig deep into researching his car before focusing on its successor.
Despite interesting developments at the Spanish Grand Prix, where the Mercedes car experienced the least amount of bouncing, the performance of the German team was not able to continue in the Principality. The car once again suffered from a lot of instability. Toto Wolff explains that these new bounces are due to the stiffness of the car, which is very rigid and low. This would explain the difficulties Mercedes faced in Monaco.
Regarding the development of the 2023 Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton stated, “I haven’t really thought about it. I think we first need to figure out what’s wrong with the current car before making a new one. If we start building it already, we could easily miss something. So I think it’s about overcoming this one (the W13), which is not yet the case, and then giving us a direction to follow. There are definitely many elements of the current car that I absolutely do not want to see in next year’s car, so I have already discussed this with my team.”
The Azerbaijan Grand Prix once again announces a challenging weekend for the Brackley team, with its long straights and very slow corners.
