Lewis Hamilton says that he is likely to decrease how much he experiments throughout a grand prix weekend in the second half of the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Mercedes started the current campaign with a car that lacked pace compared to front-runners Red Bull and Ferrari.
Hamilton has taken on a number of set-up experiments this year in a bid to uncover potential from the car.
Last time out at the Canadian Grand Prix, the seven-time World Champion crossed the line in third place, taking his second podium result of the season, after enduring a “disaster” experimental set-up during Friday practice.
“I think moving forwards we will be a little more cautious in doing too many experiments as it really does hinder you through the weekend, especially if you only have practice one and two in the dry and don’t get a P3 for example,” Hamilton said.
“I think there’s lots of learnings from this weekend and improvements we can make moving forwards.
“Really great pace [at the Canadian GP] and it’s so nice to see. It’s not always been the case with this car but it’s so nice to have a good battle with her, or him, whatever you call a car.”
Next on the F1 schedule is the British Grand Prix, a race that Mercedes has dominated throughout the turbo-hybrid era.
The team has confirmed that it is bringing upgrades to the event, and is confident that it can enjoy a trouble-free weekend, similar to the round in Spain earlier this season.
While the team is not expecting to be right on race-wining pace in the near future, Hamilton is sure that Mercedes can recapture speed that places it at the front.
“I really hope moving to Silverstone, it’s such an important race for us, and for me,” he said.
“I just want to be in a battle with these guys. At the end [of the Canadian GP] with the Safety Car and when we started again, I was hoping.
“The dream was that I could just keep in that battle with them and find a way but they were rapid. But we will get there, eventually.”
The root cause of the issues are back on the FIA again.
Wanting to improve overtaking aero for more overtaking, they chose to mandate ‘ground effect’ for major downforce generation. They either seem to have ignored the porpoise effect that it had demonstrated in a previous F1 era or just failed to do the research. Maybe not deliberately, but the wind tunnel testing, like much of the impact testing, did not extend into the porpoising envelope.
Then despite a virtually new car formula, real circuit was, and still is, severely restricted.
Yes some teams have suppressed porpoising, but they are unlikely to publish how.
The current threat of the FIA is to protect drivers health by reducing the porpoising and down force!
In other words, move them down the grid to compensate for FIA basic error.
Succinct and well explained .
It does seem like a haphazard implementation of governance, regarding the 2020 design.
Another botched attempt at giving us a show, with only a handful of combatants in play. The rest just bounce about trying to tame their stallions , without the correct saddle.
FIA has too many fingers (officiating criteria) in too many pies (Race formasts to adjudicate and administrate ).
It is now time for F1 to ditch the FIA and go it alone.
The Premier League has its own paid officials and governing body. Why not have the same for Formula One (and it’s junior classes) have ex F1-designers as part of the rules and regulations Steering Committee (including R&D). Time to break away from the cash cow that is the “FIA”.