Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are going through one of the most difficult since their destinies have crossed giving Formula 1 a long series of successes. For the second consecutive year, the team knows that they have made a mistake in the project, that they have once again played too high stakes. There W14, should have chased away the image of the W13, erased the disappointment from the faces in the factory and in the paddock, made the most successful team from the hybrid era flourish again. But at the moment it is proving to be a problematic project, yet again.
That the W14 would not have worked Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have already understood in the tests in Bahrain. The confirmation then came in the race. The problems have come back to the surface albeit in a different form. With a contract expiring in 2023 and a team that appears to have lost its way, doubts about Lewis Hamilton's permanence continue to grow. His outburst, post Bahrain, on the problems raised and never taken into consideration by the team, was seen as the first sign of giving up.
Growing gap
Two weeks later, Lewis arrives in Jeddah with the awareness that he cannot aspire to victory, at least in this first part of the season. Worrying about the gap with Verstappen's Red Bull and the revelation of theAston Martin, arrived on podium ahead of Lewis's Mercedes and Sainz's Ferrari.
"The gap with Red Bull is bigger - Lewis said in a press conference preceding the weekend in Jeddah.This year we suffer less on the straights but on the contrary we struggle out of the corners. Red Bull have a very solid rear end and they were 1 second, 1 and a half seconds faster in the race. More than we could have imagined. "
Speaking of goals for 2023, the 8-time world champion is quite clear and admitted that he didn't feel at ease with the W14 right away."Already when we drove this car for the first time we knew we had once again faced a challenge, and close to last year's scenario, but we have to work as hard as possible and stick together. I have full faith in everyone. The team hasn't suddenly lost the ability to build a great car, we know where we want to go but we have to keep working on it. We know that to fight for the win, Red Bull and Ferrari need not finish the race, maybe even Aston.”
Lewis: "I believe in Mercedes, I'm not going anywhere else"
Despite this, Mercedes has learned since last year that it can react and it is precisely the leap in quality of the W13, during the season, that keeps hope alive in Brackley: “we like the challenge, we must continue to stick together. I hope that over the course of the year we can close the gap and get back to winning ways.” On the possibility of leaving at the end of 2023 Lewis was keen to clarify: "I believe 100% in the team and have no plans to go anywhere else.
Source statements: SkySportF1
