Lewis Hamilton has said Mercedes “can’t forever rely” on hardness being their greatest strength as part of a plea to improve performance. The Silver Arrows are not quite in Formula 1’s title fight this season, but they’ve been consistent in finishing races and recorded just one retirement from 26 combined race starts thus far.
George Russell was involved in an early crash at the British Grand Prix, while team-mate Hamilton has finished all 13 races on the calendar to date. That being said, results have been sub-par after Mercedes experienced setbacks adjusting to the new F1 regulations.
Almost all manufacturers have endured difficulties with ground effect and ‘porpoising’ this season, but Mercedes’ struggles have been among the worst. Red Bull and Ferrari have looked streaks ahead of their other ‘Big Three’ rival at times, leading Hamilton to suggest it’s the engineers’ jobs to turn the tide.
“It’s been a really challenging year,” the 37-year-old told ViaPlay. “I would say similar to the year we had in 2009 with the car that we arrived in the factory in February and they said the car was looking good and then we got to the first test and we were like ‘woah’.
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