Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes team is facing 'much, much bigger problems' this season as car struggles
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Updated 18/03/2022 at 19:39 GMT
Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have struggled with their new Mercedes car in testing and now at the Free Practice sessions ahead of Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's Bahrain Grand Prix. Former world champion Hamilton said that the team were facing 'much, much bigger' problems than they had endured previously.
Verstappen 'very pleased', Hamilton downbeat after F1 practice sessions
Lewis Hamilton said that Mercedes were facing ‘much, much bigger’ problems than they had experienced before.
While Hamiton was agonisingly close to winning the world championship last season before losing out to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the start of the 2022 campaign has seen the German team trailing in testing, and now the Free Practice sessions in Bahrain ahead of Sunday’s season-opening Grand Prix.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the second session concluded, Hamilton said he had not been paying too much attention to teammate George Russell’s setup.
“Are the setups different? I don’t know,” he answered. “I’ve not been looking at George’s car. We were trialling different things but I've not been following what he’s been doing.
“I’ve been trying to focus on the problems I have on my side.”
Hamilton said that pre-season difficulties in the past were dwarfed by the current struggles, which include porpoisng.
“We’ve had small problems in the past, relatively compared to this year,” he said. “We had much smaller problems. We’ve got much, much bigger problems this year.
“Everything we do to try to fix it doesn't change that. It appears that it’s going to be a more longer term fix, nothing in the short term.”
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