Lewis Hamilton has ruled himself out of the fight at the front following Friday practice at the Monaco Grand Prix, during which he labelled the circuit as the "bumpiest it has ever been". Mercedes have been struggling with bouncing around the Circuit de Monaco, with Hamilton laying blame on the newly-resurfaced sections of the track. Hamilton joked that his eyeballs felt as if they were "coming out of their sockets" due to the W13's severe bouncing, but made clear that the problem his team are facing is not the return of porpoising, an issue they now appear to have put behind them. The Silver Arrows look to have work to do between Friday's Free Practice 2 and Saturday's FP3, as they search for answers in their quest to steady the W13.
Hamilton: Monaco bumpier than ever in 2022
"It's the bumpiest the track has ever been. It's probably the bumpiest track I have ever driven," Hamilton said after FP2. "That makes it quite difficult. "Our car is bouncing a lot. It's a different bouncing to what we've experienced in the past. It's not aero, it's just the bumps on the track making it worse." Hamilton thinks that there has been a change due to the evolution of F1's cars for the 2022 season. "I remember back in the day, in my first years here, being in a light and nimble car was so much better," he continued. "But now we have these super heavy cars, heavier than ever before. And it's crazy that in 2022 tracks are smooth when they've been resurfaced. Technology is still against us."
Mercedes will be fighting McLaren, predicts Hamilton
Hamilton admits that Mercedes have plenty of work to do overnight as they prepare for what is so often the most crucial qualifying session of the season. "When you do put a lap together, the grip doesn't feel terrible, it's just that your eyeballs are coming out of their sockets. We have some work to do overnight to try and fix that," Hamilton explained. As such, Hamilton believes that his team's main competition will be McLaren as the weekend progresses. "As anticipated, I didn't think we'd be as quick as the Ferraris and Red Bulls. Our battle is to try and stay ahead of the McLarens," he added, ruling himself out of the fight at the front. "We'll study the data and I really hope for a better day tomorrow. It feels like the car has the potential to be up there with the others, but there are all these other things hindering us a little bit. We won't stop fighting."
Most read
