Hamilton surprised by Mercedes: 'I didn't expect that'

Lewis Hamilton admits he did not expect it to take so long to be competitive again. The Briton saw Mercedes struggle with porpoising for a long time, while the competition kept falling away.

After Hamilton narrowly missed out on the world title in 2021, he naturally hoped to have a competitive car again in 2022 to take revenge. That backfired. Mercedes' W13 proved nowhere near as good as Ferrari and Red Bull Racing's cars and the German racing stable struggled especially with porpoising.

Mercedes needs time

The team saw good results in the wind tunnel and had been given hope ahead of the season, but once on the track the problem only became apparent. According to Motorsport-total.com Hamilton let it be known that he did not expect this: ''I did not expect the guys to take so long,'' said the seven-time world champion.

Mercedes itself had also expected to solve the problem faster, but it was harder than expected. Whereas Adrian Newey was surprised that more teams had not seen porpoising coming, Mercedes took a while to develop the right tools. Indeed, according to Hamilton, the team did not have the resources to test it.

However, Hamilton remains hopeful and is working hard with his team to get back to the top. The 37-year-old driver's contract expires at the end of 2023, but he has already indicated that he would prefer to sign a new multi-year deal. That won't be discussed until winter, though.