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Lewis Hamilton stressed Mercedes' need to find performance if they want to catch Red Bull and Ferrari in the final nine races of 2022.
The Silver Arrows missed the mark at the start of the season with new technical regulations and have been playing catch-up to the front runners ever since.
Engineers at Brackley and Brixworth are still trying to discover the true potential of the W13 while trying to eliminate porpoising. However, Mercedes are the most reliable team on the grid with zero DNFs due to mechanical failures in the 13 races so far this season.
This has allowed both Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russell to steadily pick up points and podiums whenever Ferrari and Red Bull have fallen off. Despite their obvious pace deficit to Ferrari, their reliablility has helped them go into the summer break only 30 points behind the Scuderia in the constructors' championship standings.
The seven-time world champion feels it is imperative for Mercedes to bring pace and performance to the already reliable package. In an interview with former teammate Heikki Kovaleinen on Viaplay, the Briton compared his situation to 2009, when McLaren were left scratching their heads with the MP4-24. He said:
“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 in 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.’’
He went on to add:
“We’ve had some really nice consistency in these last few races, which has been great. We’re still lacking performance, which is a difficult thing because I think there’s potential in this car, but we’ve had to depower it to stop it from bouncing. We’ve had really good reliability, but we can’t forever rely on reliability being the thing that keeps us on the podium, so we really need performance.’’
Lewis Hamilton hoping Mercedes can bridge gap to leaders with more upgrades after summer break
Despite Mercedes' second consecutive double podium finish of the season at the 2022 F1 Hungarian GP, Lewis Hamilton is under no illusions about the gap between them and Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton may have shown speed that caught many by surprise in Hungary, but the German team was 7.8 seconds off Max Verstappen's pace at the top when the checkered flag fell. In his post-race interview at the Hungaroring with David Coulthard, Lewis Hamilton said:
“The others guys still have a bit of an edge but we are clearly closing the gap and this is just an amazing way to go into the break knowing that we have this performance. Hopefully we can bring some more into the second part of the season and starting fighting with the guys up front.”
Mercedes have 11 podium finishes this season, the same as Ferrari, but are still searching for their first win of the season. The Silver Arrows are currently P3 in the World Constructors' Championship standings with 304 points after 13 rounds of racing.
