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Lewis Hamilton wanted Mercedes to retire his car from the 2022 Spanish GP after a Lap 1 contact left him trailing the front runners by more than 50 seconds.
According to former F1 driver and TV pundit Martin Brundle, this shows how little the Briton has enjoyed the 2022 season so far. In his column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle wrote:
“Lewis’s [Hamilton] radio call-in after falling to the back of the field with a puncture, basically wanting to stop and ‘save the power unit mileage’, was alarming in that it gave us the true picture of how little he’s been enjoying this season.”
Mercedes seem to have finally found solutions to their early-season problems with a raft of new upgrades. In Barcelona, both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton showed impressive pace during Friday's practice and secured the team’s best qualifying results of the season on Saturday.
While Russell went on to secure his second podium of the season on race day, Hamilton fell back to last place after making contact with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen on Lap 1. Nursing a damaged car, and nearly a minute away from the leader, Hamilton dejectedly called for his team to “save his engine” and retire the car.
With some encouragement from the team, however, he eventually managed to deliver a stellar recovery drive that saw him take P5 at the chequered flag.
First lap incident ruined Lewis Hamilton’s chances of a “spectacular result”
Martin Brundle believes Lewis Hamilton had the potential to secure a “spectacular result” at the 2022 Spanish GP without his first lap contact with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen. In his column for Sky Sports F1, Brundle wrote:
“Lewis’ contact with Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap surely cost him a chance of a spectacular result. He was 50 seconds behind the leader on lap two and 54 seconds at the end despite backing off by four seconds on the final tour.”
Throughout the race, Hamilton showed strong pace that was often comparable to the front runners, despite sustaining significant damage to his car during the first lap contact.
Furthermore, a late “DNF-risk” forced him to back off massively during the last few laps, leading to the Briton losing P4 to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
