Lewis Hamilton has made Mercedes-AMG-Petronas a powerhouse of F1 Motorsport. Even today, the Mercedes team is certainly struggling but still has a slight chance of doing the unthinkable. And that is because of the presence of the seven-time champion, Lewis Hamilton. At 38, he is hunting for the coveted eighth title. But it does not look like happening anytime soon. Mercedes is constantly working on the development of the W14 car.
But the car is showing new problems after every race. During the pre-season tests in Bahrain, George Russell, the young driver of the Brackley team, pointed out the issues with the balance of the W14 car. At the time, the team was happy that they had reduced the problems with bouncing but were very concerned with the trouble with the balance. But after the Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton expressed that what is bothering him very much about the car is the seat position.
Mercedes Is Not Thrilled After Melbourne Success, Why?
Experts like Jenson Button and Karun Chandhok explained why seat-positioning might be very difficult for Hamilton. If the seat position is too close to the front wheel, it never feels good. The experts think that he is not gaining much confidence with the car as he is not comfortable with the rear end. Hence, the Briton is not able to get the most out of the vehicle. Mercedes, however, was able to improve a lot as they secured the P2 in Melbourne. But the team is not too thrilled about it as they know that they are still far behind Red Bull.
According to them, the improvement in performance might have something to do with the smooth track of Melbourne. But when it came to the rough track of Bahrain, Aston Martin proved they have the edge over Mercedes due to their rear end. Evidently, the Silver Arrows lack a solid rear downforce. Other than that, they are also not as fast as Red Bull on the straight line. The RB19 is far superior to the W14 car in terms of speed.
Lately, George Russell mentioned that the Mercedes team has been working really hard with the engineers to figure out, “Why are the sims telling us something, but we are going another direction?” Apparently, Different race tracks provide different challenges. The tracks in Melbourne and Bahrain are totally different. Mercedes’s team knows that very well and would like to make changes accordingly.
Lewis Hamilton Is Eager To Get Back To Title Contention
Lewis Hamilton is desperate to find the perfect car to challenge Verstappen. He knows that, at present, the Dutchman is the fastest on the grid. Plus, RB19 is superior to the rest. But he cannot just give up. Therefore, he will need to find ways to adjust and get a better result than what happened in Australia.
Winning the next race would be a very big deal, but they know how tough it is to beat Red Bull at the moment. However, if not this year, then Lewis Hamilton might think about changing teams after the next two seasons. But Wolff mentioned that it would be quite reasonable, and he won’t mind that at all.