Sir Lewis Hamilton has been desperately waiting for Mercedes to provide the best car they can. After all, he wants to win his coveted eighth title. Since losing the opportunity so narrowly in 2021, the seven-time champion has been moving on a downward slope. Everybody knows why the trajectory for Mercedes has been going downward since 2021. Anyway, because of the two poor cars last year and this year, Lewis Hamilton remained winless in the last two years.
Mercedes was able to achieve a win in Brazil in 2022. However, things have not looked better at all ever since. Moreover, as it seems the German team created more troubles for themselves in the last few seasons. They requested the governing body for more safety, which required more rule changes. It seems the push for rule change actually, in return, backfired for Hamilton’s team.
How Mercedes Ruined It For Lewis Hamilton With Pushing FIA For Rule Change?
The FIA changed the floor edge of the cars higher by 15mm on safety grounds. But Mercedes asked for further changes that cost them their performance. Lately, in an interview, the Technical Director of Mercedes mentioned asking for a change in ride height was an error on their part. James Allison revealed their concerns over the porpoising issue last year made them take the wrong approach. The car’s bouncing trouble created problems more after the ground-effect aerodynamics returned. Moreover, the Mercedes Technical Director mentioned that they had a big internal debate regarding which direction would they go.
Whether they could drop the car down too avoid more bouncing inherently or they could keep looking for downforce as it is really difficult high up. Moreover, Allison mentioned higher up these rules are not very rewarding. It is really hard to find the downforce. But over the course of the previoius year, the rewards brought them some benefits. Hence, Allison added that the debate kept raging internally for a while. The basic logic was that it is very hard to predict where the bouncing can be incurred. Hence, the overly cautious approach of the German team ruined the last two seasons for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Mercedes Can’t Figure Out The Right Car Since 2022
It was the cost cap era from 2022 that saw the Silver Arrows fall from the top of the standings. Moreover, it was their rival, Red Bull, who overthrew the German team. As a result, Lewis Hamilton could not get a car that could help him win titles. Moreover, the Brackley team has been in such a state of confusion that they built horrible cars two years in a row. In 2022, the W13 car had been struggling with porpoising issues a little too much.
The drivers suffered bruises as well as back and neck pain. Moreover, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix last year was a perfect example of drivers struggling a lot because of tremendous bouncing. However, Mercedes surprised everybody, including their rivals, when they didn’t change the car’s zero sidepod concept. That caused even more trouble in 2023. Later, the Mercedes boss called the two cars, “Temperamental, a diva.”
