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Since the start of the 2022 season, Lewis Hamilton has seemingly made himself a test driver for Mercedes. The Briton has chosen various and often damaging setups to try and understand the underperforming car better. This is highlighted every time he and George Russell have widely different outputs on the track. The poor performances and disappointing results often stem from the changes Hamilton undertakes in the setup of his W15.
Despite F1 entering its third year of the same regulations, the seven-time champion continues to struggle. @fiagirly on X (formerly Twitter) highlighted recent comments of Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin, who explained why Hamilton is struggling more than Russell so far this season.
“It’s mainly about learning more about the car. Lewis in particular is open to major setup changes this year. He wants to learn more about where he can get the most out of the car. He has made himself a victim a few times, but if you don’t change anything, you won’t learn anything,” Shovlin revealed.
The Mercedes engineer then also revealed how the team is still struggling to fully understand their car. They are struggling to find the right balance between the front axle and rear stability.
However, no matter how many times the 39-year-old has sacrificed his race weekend attempting to find a solution, new problems continue to creep up. This persistent frustrating scenario since 2022 has become the leading factor for the team’s unreliable performances.
Despite their best efforts and the frequency of experiments, they do not seem to have discovered a solution. The latest example of this never-ending loop came during the 2024 Australian GP.
Toto Wolff admits Lewis Hamilton’s Australian GP setup went horribly wrong
In search of answers, Lewis Hamilton made drastic changes to his setup for the 2024 Australian GP’s FP2. However, the setup backfired for him massively.
In the same session where his teammate finished sixth, the seven-time champion was only 18th fastest. In an interview, as quoted by Crash, Toto Wolff admitted they had done a few experiments on Hamilton’s car but it failed to produce the results they desired.
“We’ve achieved experiments but we haven’t unlocked performance,” said Wolff. “I think in the second session we’ve gone through really quite a dramatic set-up change on Lewis and that has massively backfired.
Wolff then also explained how the frustrations were building up as the Brackley outfit still has not found any solutions. The poor interpretation of the 2022 regulations has put them in no man’s land.
However, in the third year, the team can’t be using the same excuse, according to Wolff. Regardless, as Mercedes’s struggles continue, Hamilton continues to put his weekends on the line. Only time will tell if it will be worth something.
