Lewis Hamilton has hit out at the bumps on the Circuit of the Americas, saying the track is "horrible" to drive. The Austin circuit has had several corners resurfaced with the aim of smoothing out the notoriously undulating surface, but Hamilton’s comments suggest that significant bumps still remain. Asked by media, including RacingNews365.com, how the stiffly-sprung 2022 F1 cars were coping around Austin, Hamilton simply replied: "Horrible! “Oh my god, geez. I came here after [the Canadian Grand Prix] and I drove last year's car, and it was so good. "I remember getting out just beaming from ear to ear because it was so smooth, good downforce, good power." Hamilton's Mercedes W13 notably struggled with bouncing and porpoising in early 2022. "This year, obviously we lost a bit of power with the biofuels and, then the car is so stiff," he added. "Luckily, I don't have many fillings, because if I did, they would have all come out this year for sure. It's just so, so bumpy. I'm really praying for not a bumpy car next year!"
Hamilton reflects on Friday running
Despite reservations over the undulation at Austin, Hamilton said he was happy with his running during Friday’s two practice sessions, and paid tribute to his team for continuing to revise and update the W13. "Everything went to plan," said Hamilton of his Friday at Austin. "Firstly, I'm super grateful to all the everyone back at the factory for working so hard on bringing us an upgrade this weekend. "It's been a tough year for everyone at the factory, and for them to continuously be pushing and keeping their heads down and really pulling out these new pieces, I'm super grateful. "And I kept the car in one piece today, which is good, and definitely felt improvements in the car." Teams had less representative practice time than usual on Friday at Austin due to FP2 being given over to testing Pirelli’s development tyres, with teams allocated set amounts of fuel and unable to make set-up changes. Nonetheless, Hamilton said he had the feeling that Mercedes would be close to the leading cars over the remainder of the weekend. "Obviously, [FP2] was a bit wasteful in terms of feeling performance, but FP1 was feeling quite good," said the Briton. "I'm hoping we'll make some changes and we'll find out [on Saturday] exactly where we stand, but it doesn't feel like we're too far away from everybody."
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