Lewis Hamilton said that Mercedes' performance in qualifying this Saturday (11) in Baku was once again compromised by the car's high-speed quirks, so being in the top-10 is already something remarkable
Lewis Hamilton had another typical day in 2022 with Mercedes in Baku, suffering through the pits and seeing his best lap being 1s5 slower than that of pole-position Charles Leclerc. But this time, the result of this Saturday (11) was not received with astonishment or even regrets. For the driver, just being among the top ten is already remarkable, since nothing the German team tries seems to work.
The seven-time champion explained that, with the new regulations, the whole quest for performance consists of trying to get the car as close to the ground as possible, only this brings the porpoising that so plagues Mercedes. "I'm not surprised [by the difference to the front row]. The same thing happened in Monaco," he said.
"It was a very difficult qualifying, because we were pushed. We have a very small window to be worked on the car, and everything we try doesn't give us what we want. We made so many changes, but we always end up with the same conclusion: the quiques, which compromise performance a lot," punctuated the owner of the #44 car, further saying that drivers need to choose to "take a beating on the back and neck by lowering the height of the car as much as possible to gain a little more performance."
"By lowering the car, it bounces wildly. But we're still there, just very slow on the straights. We'll struggle in tomorrow's race, and maybe we'll have a better pace than the others. There is a lot to expect, a complicated and chaotic race, a lot can happen. We are in the top-10," he emphasized.
In Q2, Hamilton was under investigation for allegedly getting in the way of the McLaren cars that crashed in the second half of the session. The Briton defended himself, saying that he was not slower than allowed, but that he was waiting for an opportunity to take advantage of the vacuum on the straight.
"I was off the track, and you have to do that within a certain time. You have to be in that time, and I was in it, I wasn't under the pace. So I was allowed to drive at that pace and I didn't hold anybody back," he said. "I was trying to get the vacuum, because we are very slow on the straights, and the guys didn't want to pass, so I went out and did my lap," Hamilton closed.