Hamilton confused by Mercedes’ performance: I’m exhausted, we haven’t made any progress. It’s a struggle, he says

Lewis Hamilton is baffled by Mercedes’ work. In the Japanese Grand Prix, he was only fifth, with his teammate George Russell finishing seventh. The seven-time world champion is complaining about the state of his car and says his team hasn’t moved on from last season.

Fifth and seventh – that’s what the Mercedes drivers scored in the last Japanese Grand Prix. It should be noted, given the configuration of the circuit and the performance of the German stable, they were expected to be probably as fast as fourth fastest.

Lewis Hamilton, in particular, rather struggled throughout the race weekend at Suzuka and, like last season, complained about the handling of his car.

George Russell was much better. In the race afterwards, the performance of both drivers was fairly even, but it was the 25-year-old Briton who left the impression of his overall performance in Japan. However, he paid the price for a poor strategy with one pit stop.

Russell’s tyres “went flat” at the end of the race and he can still be quite happy with his seventh place. And while Hamilton naturally wanted to get more out of the Japanese Grand Prix, he still had to defend his fifth place from a charging Carlos Sainz.

The Mercedes team leader is logically not happy with the state of his car, especially when Mercedes was taken to have actually reached a realistic maximum at Suzuka. Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari were all much better in terms of race and qualifying pace.

I’m exhausted…

“I’m exhausted. It’s a battle with the car with all my might to get as high as I can and get ahead of Ferrari, who have put in more upgrades this week. It’s been a hell of a fight and a race to try and get as many points as possible for the team,” Hamilton told Sky Sports in a post-race interview.

Hamilton also commented on the problems of the current monopost and says he has not seen any significant progress from last season.

“On a weekend like this, it’s difficult. Especially when the car is such a burden. The feeling is the same as last year, it’s jumping, sliding around the track. It’s hard considering how much work we’ve done to progress and we’re no closer to the front,” he added.

Source: F1, Sky Sports