Lewis Hamilton says that his Mercedes team are relishing the challenge of finding a way to tame their problematic car in time for the opening race of the new Formula 1 season. The seven-time F1 World Champion has admitted that it could take more than "four races" for the team to truly understand their W13, built for the sport's radical regulation change. Hamilton made his frustrations clear following pre-season testing, confessing that Mercedes have "a lot of work to do" if they are to fight for wins during the early weeks of the campaign. With race week upon them, Mercedes will now look to get on top of their car, with a number of crucial video meetings set to take place.
Hamilton reflects on "difficult" testing period
"The testing has been difficult," Hamilton explained, speaking at the 2022 Dubai Expo after a Bahrain test that saw his Mercedes appear to struggle with porpoising as it placed lower than rivals Red Bull and Ferrari on the timing sheets. "It's crazy because, years ago, we used to have a lot of test days and now we only have, literally, three days (sic) in the car altogether? So it's not a lot of laps. "When we go into this race, this week, we're still learning about the car – we probably will be for the first four races at least. We've got a lot of problems. As you have seen, everyone's bouncing up and down. "It's interesting, because I was worried that, you know, I'm 37 now, so I'm racing against George [Russell], he's only 24, right? But he had problems and he was feeling it in his back. So it's not just an age thing!"
Mercedes "hyped" about W13 challenge
Hamilton has a busy schedule ahead of him as he looks towards a weekend that is expected to show where Mercedes place in the pecking order. "The great thing, right after this, I have a conference call with all the guys back in Brixworth, talking about the engine, about driveability, about how we can get more power out for this week," Hamilton explained. "Then I have another conference call with all the engineers up at Brackley, on how we can push this car forward, how we can stop it from jumping, how we can extract all the performance for it. "So everyone's hyped, everyone's excited, and these engineers, they love the challenge. So it's good."
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