Formula One ace Lewis Hamilton has been trying his best to get as many points as possible with a car that’s not championship-winning material. Everybody knows what the seven-time champion is capable of doing with a championship-winning car. During his dominant period, his team Mercedes produced the fastest cars on the grid. The Brackley team was the one to beat in the turbo-hybrid era. They had the best car and the best driver.
Lewis Hamilton became the only driver in history to win over 100 races and finish on pole more than 100 times. He, along with brief stints of Nico Rosberg and Valtteri Bottas, helped Mercedes win eight constructor titles back to back. These drivers have been good, but it is not only about the skills of the racers. Recently in an interview with RacingNews365, Lewis Hamilton mentioned that he always relies on his driving skills. But that has not been enough in a lot of venues last two years.
Lewis Hamilton Mentions How The Car Limits A Driver’s Skills And Abilities
Lewis Hamilton gave an instance in Silverstone when Mercedes was equal in speed with Red Bull until they reached around Turn 13 in the qualifying lap. However, then suddenly, the W14 car lost performance and pace. Recently, Mercedes drivers complained that porpoising issue was back at Spa. Hamilton further added that his team’s engineers have their limitations as they can’t see the airflow throughout the car. The seven-time champion feels that the vortices can blow anybody’s mind if they could see what’s going on underneath. Moreover, it is very different from the cars of the previous generations.
With limited resources, it consumes a lot of time to work through these issues. The engineers must be careful enough to make decisions. Moreover, Lewis Hamilton added that going full throttle on a particular decision can make them lose a lot of performance. It could be as much as a tenth of the performance. Hence, the engineers must be very methodical. On the other hand, Mercedes’s CTO, Mike Elliot, mentioned the team is looking to improve the car as much as possible in the remaining races in 2023. But their prime focus at present is the 2024’s car.
New Mercedes Upgrades Apparently Helped A Little Bit
Undoubtedly, the car plays an essential role in order to help a team win a title or even a driver win a championship. That’s what Mercedes did so well in the period from 2014 to 2021. However, with the introduction of the cost cap era, everything fell apart for Mercedes. They could not figure out a way to build a strong and fast car to help their drivers channel their skills on the grid. From 2022, Mercedes is still in a state of confusion. They have introduced new upgrades since the Monaco Grand Prix this year. Indeed they have been through improvements over the last few races this year.
The biggest change was adding side pods. Mercedes believed in the zero side pod concept, and since last year, they have struggled due to this belief. But the Brackley team realized that they had no choice other than adding side pods to the car. That’s what they did in Monaco. Moreover, they added front and floor suspensions. Adding to that, the W14 car had a new front wing recently to help the vehicle in gaining speed around the slow-speed corners. All these upgrades helped Mercedes gain a few podium finishes in Spain, Canada, and England. In Hungary, Lewis Hamilton was able to get his 104th pole position. But still, there is a huge gap between Mercedes and the reigning champions, Red Bull.