Hamilton wants more equal cars in F1: 'Then it's about pure quality'

Lewis Hamilton does not find it painful that Max Verstappen is now in power in F1. The Briton hopes to be competitive again soon with Mercedes, but is not worried about things out of his control.

Hamilton not worried

Hamilton was SO close to an eighth world title in 2021, but a safety car restart on the final lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix put an end to that. Verstappen snatched that title from in front of him, and the same Dutchman will also dominate Formula 1 with Red Bull Racing in 2022. Hamilton, however, is not too worried about that.

''Whilst we do worry about things we can’t control, you have to try to learn not to,'' Hamilton said wisely in conversation with Racer. ''I do watch (other) sports and I wish that it was just the pure ability that I have that makes all the difference.'' However, this is not the case in F1, Hamilton also sees. It is much more about the performance of the car and the whole team you are in.

Putting 'pain' in F1 into perspective

It is annoying for Hamilton and his team at the moment that no wins have yet been recorded in 2022, but the seven-time world champion also puts it in perspective. ''So it’s definitely tough. But I don’t like the word ‘tough’ because I’ve just been in Africa and I’ve seen kids that have nothing, so nothing is ever really that tough.''

''I wouldn’t say it hurts. We all know what it could be. We would love to be in that battle fighting, and I wish that all the cars were a lot closer and we were all having a much better battle closer to the front,'' the Brit concludes.

Hamilton has a tough time in 2022 at all, because besides the fact that his car is not good enough to compete for victory on a weekly basis, he also has a bigger challenge within the team. Although Hamilton narrowly won the qualifying duel over George Russell (9-7 and an average difference of 0.035s), on Sunday Russell scored 35 more points in 2022.