F1 News
Hamilton "will manage because he's a fighter" according to Nico Rosberg
For Lewis Hamilton, the 2022 Mercedes F1 car was meant to be the car that would in their eyes deliver redemption for what happened in Abu Dhabi. However, Mercedes are not competing for race wins at this stage of the season as Red Bull and Ferrari run away in the World Championship standings.
Hamilton admitted that he was out of the title fight following his zero points accumulated during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend. For the first time since October 2012, neither Mercedes car featured in Q3 for qualifying. Russell advanced to finish in the top four, but Hamilton failed to move through the field during the Grand Prix.
The seven-time World Champion has managed to win a race in every single season across his F1 career which started in 2007. Speaking on Sky Sports, Hamilton's former teammate warns that 2022 is looking like the season where that streak will come to an end. He also sees 'understandable' tensions start to rise inside the Mercedes garage after team boss Toto Wolff and Hamilton had a confrontation.
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Winless run
With new rules and regulations, the rate of development is going to be extremely high in 2022. Whilst every team have brought upgrades to their cars at some point in the last month, Mercedes haven't had any significant upgrades. Porpoising seems to be the issue that everyone in the Mercedes factory is focused on solving, whilst Red Bull and Ferrari continue to push ahead. As a result, Hamilton was downbeat in the post-session interviews.
"That was tough to see Lewis in that state, he's really down which is understandable. It is a long season but they're nowhere with that car; they're not even going to be able to fight for race wins any time soon. It's difficult for Lewis to keep his motivation up. I think he will manage because he really is a fighter and remember there's always that thing that he still wants to beat his teammate," the 2016 World Champion said.
Rosberg concluded by suggesting Russell's positive results will motivate Hamilton to improve.
