Looking back at his most difficult season yet.
For Lewis Hamilton, the 2022 campaign represented his first ever winless Formula One season in 16 years of competiton.
Mercedes AMG Petronas, who like all teams had to compete with new rules that came into effect this season, coupled with the dreaded porpoising they appeared to suffer more than most.
Nonetheless, Hamilton did take nine podiums, five of which were runners up spot. All was not lost for the Stevenage native. Who will ever forget his phenomenol drive at Silverstone?
While it was not the type of campaign he has now become accustomed to, despite this, Hamilton did have several highlights throughout the 22 race campaign. Silverstone would surely be up there. The seven time WDC talks about the good parts of the year.
“Budapest felt great. Zandvoort was good too, and so was Silverstone with the atmosphere and being able to finish on the podium there. Brazil was a highlight for how happy the team was. I was nervous of losing the one-two and was grateful we crossed the line and secured it. I’ve not seen the team that happy in a while, so that felt great, given where I got knocked back to at the start.”
The way the season panned out and finished would give a large indication that 2023 could see a return to the sharp end for both Hamilton and the Mercedes team. 2022 was slow, irritating and painful at times but looking back there must have been times when there was visible light at the end of the tunnel.
“The first big step was Barcelona, that was our first hint of there being more potential in the car. It turned out to be a bit of a false positive; the car was good there but then the races afterwards were difficult. It was like a ghost was in the car and it kept coming back. But then there was France and that felt like a good step with our first double podium of the season. And then there was Austin, too, with the update we had working well.”
As per above, Mercedes were hit for six by the new rules and more so the porpoising issue way more than most. Considering where they were in March and and a little earlier in testing to where they finished, surely Hamilton himself can see the changes too.
“It’s been impressive, for sure. I always knew that we could do it. I never doubted that we would get there in the end, but there was lots of trial and error, and so much failure this year. There were times we brought upgrades and they didn’t work, and times we tried different things and it didn’t work. I tried so many things and failed so many times but through that you learn and grow. That’s what it’s been about this year. It’s been about failure, breaking down egos, strengthening our relationships, and strengthening our communications. From that perspective it’s been really empowering.”
In any sport, what measures a team or individual is the way they come back from a drop from the top and the way they rise back up. Mercedes were no different and finished the season strongly after their early issues. One thing is for that they are hungry to take the fight back to Red Bull in 2023. Write them off at your peril!!!!