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The Imola Grand Prix was an absolute nightmare for seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who failed to score a single point throughout the weekend. At the end of Sunday's race, the Briton was heard describing his 2022 challenger as "undrivable" and later compared his Mercedes W13 to his 2009 car, given its lack of performance.
In an interview with the media before the Imola GP, Hamilton reiterated his faith in the Silver Arrows despite his poor performance so far in the 2022 season. He said:
“There are people that watch and say that I’ve never had a bad car. And I can assure you I have. The 2009 car was very, very far off, and was the worst car that I’ve had. This car currently is not far off that experience, but I think has a lot of potential. As did that car, we fixed it eventually and got back in the fight, or in the game. And I have the utmost faith that my team can do that.”
Recollecting his experience in the 2009 F1 season, Lewis Hamilton said:
“The scenario in 2009 was I was in my third year in this sport, it was a brand-new era of car. And I remember coming back in February, or January, to the team, and I remember the head aerodynamicists and team guys at the top were like, ‘Oh, we’ve already hit our target.’ The new rules said that we would have 50% less downforce in 2009, so they designed the car to have 50% less downforce! And I remember in February, we were like, ‘Oh, we’ve already hit our target.’ And I was like, ‘That doesn’t sound right…’ But I didn’t have the experience at the time. And then obviously we got to the first test and we realised that others had almost as much downforce as the previous year. And they were like, ‘Oh shoot, we’ve got to work to regain that.’ And the ultimate unlocker of that was a double diffuser. And we got there.”
Meanwhile, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff took the blame for Lewis Hamilton's lack of performance at Imola. Former world champion Nico Rosberg, however, claimed that the Briton played a significant role in the result, given that his team-mate George Russell managed a fourth-place finish.
"We will find a solution" - Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes' porpoising issues
Mercedes have visibly struggled with the new 2022 regulations, especially when it comes to porpoising.
Speaking about resolving these issues, Lewis Hamilton gave reassurances that Mercedes will come back stronger. He said:
“This one’s different because the team have not been like, ‘Oh, we’ve already hit our goal’. We didn’t know where everyone would be. They’ve been super innovative with design. And our wind tunnel was telling we had really good downforce. And unfortunately, we got on track and we didn’t see that… There was no bouncing, for example, in a wind tunnel. And we came across this phenomenon. This experience is a lot harder to fix than then we could have ever imagined. But as I’ve said, it doesn’t kill us will only make us stronger. And we will find a solution one way or another.”
Hamilton currently stands seventh in the drivers' standings with a total of 28 points, which is a 21-point deficit to his teammate Russell.
