Lewis Hamilton says the 2022 F1 season hasn’t had ‘many mistakes’ and welcomes the progress Mercedes has made.
Mercedes F1 entered the season with a car unable to compete at the top of the table against rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. In the early stages it suffered from severe popa songs, but the problem diminished as the season progressed.
The team hoped for updates several times a year, but none of the new parts could consistently get Mercedes back to front-line pace.
Mercedes F1 won its only race of the year with Lewis Hamilton’s teammate George Russell taking his maiden victory at the penultimate round, the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix.
Despite a difficult year, Lewis Hamilton has praised Mercedes’ efforts to overcome its problems.
“It was definitely impressive,” said Lewis Hamilton.
“We always knew we could do it. We never doubted that we would eventually, but there has been a lot of trial, error and failure this year.”
“Sometimes you push an update and it doesn’t work, and other times you try something else and it doesn’t work.”
“I’ve tried many things and failed many times, but through it I’ve learned and grown. It was this year. It was about failure, ego crash, relationship strengthening, communication strengthening. So it really gave me candies”.
Mercedes F1’s first breakthrough was the Spanish F1 Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton admitted he was disappointed with the team’s false hopes, having had fewer overtaking problems that race, and thought the team had sorted the problem.
“The first big step was in Barcelona. It was the first sign that the car had more potential,” said Hamilton.
“It turned out to be a bit of a false positive. The car was good, but the race after was difficult.”
“It was like a ghost was in the car and kept coming back. But after that, getting my first double podium of the season in France felt like a good step forward.”
“And I had Austin. The update worked fine.”
Mercedes F1 finished the season third in the Constructors’ Championship, its first year without a title since the start of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014.
Category: F1 / Lewis Hamilton / mercedes
