Lewis Hamilton concedes that the Mercedes Formula 1 team’s ongoing struggles are a culmination of the poor foundations it laid at the start of the ground effect era.
Mercedes entered F1’s latest regulations as the team to beat having won an unprecedented eight consecutive Constructors’ Championships between 2014 and 2021.
However, the German marque has been unable to replicate that success since, accruing one win as Red Bull has taken up the mantle as the sport’s pre-eminent force.
Despite abandoning the failed ‘zeropod’ solution and overhauling the car concept on its W15, Mercedes has endured its worst start to a season since 2011 this term.
Hamilton, who revealed Mercedes removed 90 points of downforce to control bouncing in 2022, admits the team has paid the price for failing to pin a stable platform.
Asked whether Mercedes had been able to conclude the reasons it has failed to nail the current regulations, Hamilton answered: “We just haven’t yet, it’s not over yet.
“But I think with this sport it’s just naturally difficult.
“If you start on the right foot and the first brick down has got a good foundation you can just continue to build on it, and I think that’s what we had experienced in the past years.
“Whereas when we started with this generation of car we started with five bricks, good weight, we had to knock it down and try again, knock it down and try again, and take off that performance basically. We made all these changes, tried everything, sometimes lost our way, sometimes then found it and then lost it again, I think it’s just very complex.”
Hamilton has praised the collective spirit and values that Mercedes continues to retain, though, despite its ongoing slump continuing into a third consecutive season.
“I’ve been in the team a long time so I know pretty much everything about the team, so I wouldn’t say I’ve learned anything new during this time,” the Briton said.
“The team has been incredibly resilient. There’s people here who have been here 20+ years who have been through the bad times and the good times.
“There’s people who have joined over the period of success that we’ve had and only knew the good times that there’s been in the team, and now are experiencing the difficult times.
“I think what’s really special about this team is we have amazing core values. The team continues to do its talking not only on track but also off track.
“OK, we’re not delivering in terms of winning races like we exist to do, but it’s not always about the destination, it’s about the journey, right? And we’re in it together.”
Hamilton believes that Aston Martin and McLaren’s respective resurgences last season demonstrate that Mercedes should not give up on returning to the sharp end.
“I think it’s all about perspective,” the seven-time champion added. “I think for us of course we’ve not started the season where we wanted to be, we’ve got a long way to go.
“We’ve seen in the past – last year for example – how things can switch with certain teams. You look at like Aston or McLaren last year who started on the back foot or the other way round.
“So anything can happen in this sport. I think we’ve just got to learn as much as we can, take as much as we can from the data, remain positive, continue to work hard and I always say it’s not how you fall, it’s how you get up. We will just continue to chase and fight and hope we can be fighting at the front at some stage.”
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