I had to have spirit in the car, we had a lot of setbacks, Hamilton said. How did the British driver rate the 2022 season?

Lewis Hamilton hasn’t had a great season, finishing sixth in the Drivers’ Championship and struggling in the first half of the 2022 season in particular. It was his recent comments about the Mercedes W13 that made him feel like he still had some spirit in the car.

Sixth in the drivers’ championship, 240 points to his name, holder of nine podiums and, above all, no wins. The seven-time world champion certainly can’t be satisfied with the past year of Formula 1.

For the first time in his 16-year F1 career, he found himself in a situation where he did not win a single race. And the final sixth place in the championship is also his worst result to date.

But it has to be said – Mercedes has been struggling this year. Conceptually, the German team completely failed to make the transition to the new era of F1, its cars suffered perhaps most of all from porpoising, Hamilton complained about the poor handling of the car, and performance was also down significantly.

As if on cue, Mercedes tried to rectify its problems through new upgrades, but after encouraging performances in Spain, Silverstone and Hungary came further disappointment. So it was only the big upgrade in the US that helped Mercedes the most.

In the last three races of the 2022 season, the Silver Arrows set times comparable to, or even better than, Ferrari and Red Bull. A few dozen hours ago, however, Hamilton reflected on the season in an interview with F1.

And it was here that he said that because of the roller-coaster-like performance of constantly finding new problems with his car, he felt that something inexplicable was happening on the track.

Hamilton’s statement

“The first big step was Barcelona, which was the first indication that our car had more potential. But it turned out to be a bit of a false positive. The car was good there, but the subsequent races were difficult,” Hamilton explained in an interview with F1.

“It was like there was a ghost in the car that kept coming back. But then France came along and there I felt we made a good step when we got a double podium for the first time this season. And then there was Austin, too, with an upgrade that worked well for us,” he continues.

Objectively, though, we have to admit that Mercedes has really done a great job across the season.

And in the end, thanks to their hard work, they came very close to the top two teams. George Russell even scored his first career victory, with both drivers recording 17 podiums and only 3 retirements.

“I always knew we could do it. I never doubted that we could do it in the end, but this year there was a lot of trial and error and so many failures.

“There were times when we came up with improvements and they didn’t work. Then there were times when we tried different things and it didn’t work. I’ve tried so many things and failed so many times, but that’s how you learn and grow. That’s what this year has been about. Failure, breaking down our egos, strengthening our relationships and communication. From that point of view it was really empowering,” he concluded.

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