Lewis Hamilton reckons Mercedes still has a huge « mountain to climb »
While Mercedes is finally finding a rhythm closer to its rivals Red Bull and Ferrari, the eight-time world champion still has a long way to go before returning to its best form, according to Lewis Hamilton.
It took Mercedes no less than nine months to understand its terrible mistake for this 2022 season: according to technical director Mike Elliott, the issues with the W13 can be summed up to a specific moment last year, in October 2021 to be precise. « What you see in terms of performance and how the car oscillates from one race to another is the consequence of that, and it’s a mistake that we have been aware of for some time, and something that we have corrected, which is why our performances have gradually improved. But this is not something that we can completely fix for a little while, and we will do it during the winter. »
If the aerodynamicist remained quite mysterious about the origin of the problem, Toto Wolff unveiled a little more, suggesting that the error comes from the floor of the race car: « I think we now understand better what we did wrong with the car », stated the team leader. « We can almost trace it back to a single decision last October, we thought we could run the car on the floor, but you can’t, so it’s a small level of the size of a hamster step. As long as the trajectory is upward, even with small setbacks, I believe we are on the right track. »
A good path that took a long time to unfold, as Formula 1 heads towards the second-to-last race of the championship this weekend… But Mercedes has taken advantage of the past few races to experiment with the W13, looking ahead to the 2023 season. In Austin, the team tried a new floor design, an extremely important part of the car that underwent further improvements in Mexico. Mercedes also experimented with other aerodynamic elements of the W13, particularly with George Russell’s car, by modifying the configuration of the front and rear wings. These changes proved fruitful and could have even led to a victory for Lewis Hamilton, if not for a terrible mistake in the tire strategy (once again…).
A massive mountain to climb
However, the seven-time world champion (who is still chasing his first win this season) prefers to guard against excessive optimism. “The mountain we have to climb is enormous,” Lewis Hamilton declared to Formula1.com. “For us, it is important to imagine that it is the biggest, steepest, and most difficult mountain to climb, because if you think it’s just a normal hill, you won’t measure up. You have to think that it is the most challenging ascent you can imagine, which means you have to dig deep.”
The Briton admits, however, that significant progress has been made throughout the season. «There is a lot of work that we have already done at this point to understand where we are, where we went wrong in the previous decisions that were made last year », he commented, confirming the statements of Toto Wolff and Mike Elliott.
« As for taking the right measures for next year, it is not easy to find one’s way because there are many different options, but communication is the aspect I am trying to work on with everyone, ensuring that there are no details to be sorted out, no misunderstanding about what I feel in the car and what I want in the car, and ensuring that we continuously create a dialogue, he also explained.
« Today, I sat down with Shov [Andrew Shovlin, track chief], Ron [Meadows, sporting director], and Mike [Elliott, mentioned technical director] and simply asked questions: “This is what concerns me, this is what keeps me awake at night, what can we do about it? How can I help you do better, do more?” There’s not much we can do, because we have to have faith in the process, but it’s about letting people know that you are there – it’s not up to them to figure it out on their own, we will do it together.
It must be said that there is never too much to improve a situation that seemed almost unthinkable in 2021. Mercedes is still very far, too far from its level in previous years, where its supremacy was only challenged last year by Red Bull, albeit unsuccessfully. The consecutive victories and eight constructors’ titles seem like a thing of the past, but in Formula 1, like in other sports, nothing is eternal, and success is no exception. Williams, McLaren, and Ferrari can attest to that.
