Sir Lewis Hamilton has a tough time returning to winning ways. The previous race in Melbourne was kind of a breath of fresh air. After a long time, he had a podium finish. But Mercedes and Hamilton know that does not solve all the issues.
The German team is still far behind Red Bull. Max Verstappen has got an advantage over Lewis Hamilton due to a faster and more reliable car. Max had the best season last year with 15 wins out of 22 races. On the contrary, Lewis Hamilton had the worst season of his career without a single race win in a year. Since the cost cap rule came to light, the teams had to make a lot of changes to their cars. However, the biggest problem was faced by the powerhouses – Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull. These powerhouses were used to spare no expense on their cars. Hence, the aerodynamics of their car would always be of superior quality to the rest of the teams.
Hamilton Feels F1 Rules Have Not Lived Up To The Expectations
Mercedes had the best time during the turbo-hybrid era, winning eight constructor’s titles and seven driver’s world championships. Lewis Hamilton won six championships with Mercedes during this period adding to his first title with his former team, McLaren.
However, Formula One decided to introduce a new rule for environment conservation. Previously, cars used to emit dirty air focusing on the generation of over-body downforce. F1 introduced the new rules back in 2022 to reduce the polluted air. Therefore, the cars will have to go through far more overtakes. The cars will have to focus more on the ground effect now. Lewis Hamilton feels the cars in the current generation might be a little bit better than the previous ones. However, the seven-time champion adds, “With the new rule, the car is not delivering everything that they told us it would.”
Lewis Hamilton Is Still Looking For His First Race Win In Two Years
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton knows that W14 has far fewer issues than its predecessor (W13). The W13 car had a huge porpoising issue. It used to bounce a lot along with the turbulence. Hamilton and Russell both complained about back and neck injuries along with bruises due to the bouncing of the car. Finally, the Mercedes team won the Brazilian Grand Prix last year. It sounds good, but it was the “perfect storm,” according to Toto Wolff, Mercedes boss. The German team thought about changing the concept of the car for the current season.
However, the Grand Prix win in Brazil, with Mercedes securing both P1 and P2, inspired the team to stick to the same concept of the W13 car. That is leading to yet another disastrous result for the Silver Arrows. It is just not helping Hamilton to get back to winning ways. The seven-time champion has not won a race since last in 2021, with the first three Grands Prix this year over. Lewis Hamilton won the pole position last in 2021 in Saudia Arabia.
