Drama by Lewis Hamilton

lewis hamilton He is experiencing one of the worst moments of his athletic career. This is fact. After failing to lose his eighth title in the final lap in a final as controversial in 2021, the Briton ensured he would return “stronger than ever” and threatened a better version of Lewis than last year. But he encounters a Mercedes with a lot of trouble, far from the best, and in turn, he performs worse than his new star team partner, George Russell. lewis is far from the impeccable driver testing his vehicle, and georgenewcomer to Mercedes, you get better results. But the most surprising is the huge difference between the two Imola. Using the same car Lewis was 13th and Russell finished in 4th place, 9 positions apartsomething unusual for a champion like Hamilton.

Hamilton – Russell comparison

Rankings (2-2):

Bahrain: Hamilton 5th- Russell 9th
Saudi: Russell 6th, Hamilton 16th
Australia: Hamilton 5th – Russell 6th
Imola: Russell 11th-Hamilton 13th

Race results (3-1 in favor of Russell):

Bahrain: Hamilton 3rd- Russell 4th
Arabia: Russell 5th – Hamilton 10th
Australia: Russell 3rd – Hamilton 4th (Lewis, with a safety disability, which caused him to lose his seat to George)
Imola: Russell 4th – Hamilton 13th

Toto Wolff, aware of the huge public support Hamilton now needs, was quick to apologize to his driver over the radio, making sure a champion like him deserves a better car and the current W13 is a single-seater “doesn’t drive”. In addition, he explained the huge difference between the results of his two students so that no one could overwhelm the British. According to the Austrian, Russell was able to have better speed than the 7-time champion because he was riding in clean air, with no vehicle in front. Meanwhile, he stressed how hurt Hamilton was to ride in the back of a group of slower cars. In addition, he said that because these cars were close together, everyone had DRS and could defend themselves, to be prevented hamilton advance.

“I think Lewis has more speed than Gasly or Albon or all the other guys in front of him. But there’s DRS on the straight and if you don’t have speed on the straight, you can’t pass.”declared wolf.

That’s the official version of the Mercedes Principal Team. But Lewis knew he wasn’t performing at the expected level. This confirms his message on the radio after the race: “At least George got some points, so I apologize to everyone for not being able to do the same”.

What’s with Mercedes?

The worst thing for Hamilton is that Mercedes ’problems are still numerous and seem far from fixable. The star car suffers a lot of bounce on the straight due to the sudden loss of ground effect, and to reduce this, they have to lift the car, losing load and speed on the curves. In turn, Mercedes has great resistance to advance (drag) and struggles hard to get the tires to the right temperature for use in qualification. In one lap, the Mercedes W13 shows its worst side, while its best version appears in the race, with speed already there to take the lead in the center zone. As a result, drivers start farther away from their natural position in the race and force them to return.

Many things can happen there. One of them, what happened to Russell: having clean air and being able to return safely. But to do this, George had to traverse more areas in the beginning. Another, what happened hamilton: He didn’t have a good start and was stuck in the back of a slow car. In mixed conditions, in the dry passage between the falling water, Hamilton could not get out of it to overtake because it could lead to rotation. And then DRS struck him from his opponents. As well as the lack of speed of his car directly.

So, Lewis’s result is surprising. Hamilton was lapped by Verstappen, who wasn’t surprised: “They’ve been slow all year, so it’s not really a surprise.”

Outside of 2021 Azerbaijan GP (where he missed a button in the last jump, where he finished 15th), yesterday he crossed the finish line for the first time since 2013 out of points without being abandoned. Whatever happened in Baku last year and not considering retirements, this is Lewis ’worst result since he was 19th at the 2012 European GP.

Lewis is living in his worst moments. He once said that his worst car was the one in 2009. We even ask him if that’s still the case.