While Lewis Hamilton is desperate to secure his first race win of the 2022 F1 season, he admitted that one win is simply not enough for the team, given their potential and aspirations.
Mercedes absolutely dominated the sport over the last eight years, but had a shockingly difficult start to the 2022 season after the introduction of new regulations. However, the seven-time world champion has complete faith in his team and truly believes that they will make it to the end of the season with at least one victory to their name, although the main focus remains on having a stronger 2023 season overall.
Speaking to former F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen and Viaplay in Hungary, Lewis Hamilton said:
“I honestly think there is potential to win races, and I’m hoping that they [Mercedes] find something that just brings us that little bit of extra downforce without bouncing. [That’s] been tough for the team to achieve, but no one’s given up on it. There’s a lot of pride in everyone’s work as it should be, but I really do hope by the end of the year, we’re able to get get a win. I truly believe we will get a win this year.”
He continued:
“One win is not enough for us in terms of what we work for, but it will hopefully be in good stead for next year. I think right now when I’m talking to the team, I’m like, ‘Hey, this is what I don’t want next year and this is what I need next year and in this car’. And so, I’m trying to help steer them to make sure that they provide us with that next year.”
Emphasizing that Mercedes need to be “humble” in their approach and innovation when it comes to their 2023 challenger in order to compete with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton added:
“I think, fundamentally, we have to acknowledge that the others [Red Bull and Ferrari] have done a better job. And whichever kind of philosophy they’ve taken has worked well for them. We have to be conscious of that moving forward. We can’t be stubborn and say, ‘No, our way is definitely the way and it will eventually work’, because we could wait for years for that. And we have to be quick. We have to be concise. We have to be humble in our approach, which I think we will be. That’s the conversations [happening] in the background.”
Lewis Hamilton compares first half of 2022 to the 2009 season for Mercedes
Mercedes kicked off the 2022 season with plenty of porpoising issues and maintained their position in the Constructor Standings purely on the basis of their reliability, before slowly building back up in terms of pace and car performance.
Lewis Hamilton compared the struggles of the season to that of 2009, saying:
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“It’s been a really challenging year. I would say similar to the year we had in 2009, with the car that, [when] we arrived at the factory in February or January 2009, they said the car [was] looking good Then we got to the first test, and we were like, ‘Whoa, it’s a long way away from where we need to be’. And as a team, we’ve gone through a similar process in terms of trying to strip away some things, rebuild, regroup, manoeuvre this car into a better place.”
Mercedes stood third in the Constructor Standings with a mere thirty-point deficit against Ferrari.
Catch Lewis Hamilton next at the Belgian GP at the end of this month.
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Coming soon!
