Wolf: “Hamilton still wants to be here”

Toto Wolf, organizer of eight consecutive Manufacturers’ World Championships and seven Mercedes F1 drivers in the last eight years, clarified that Lewis Hamilton had not considered leaving Formula 1 because of the – for now – serious W13 problems and stressed that “We probably won’t be able to claim this year’s championship for ourselves.”

The Mercedes W13 is a difficult puzzle for the Brockley team, mainly due to the problem of impact (porpoise) which does not allow it to adjust properly and bring its full speed to the surface. Hamilton recently stated that her driving ““It’s not fun at all.”

And he continued: “No change we make to the car will work at the moment. That’s the hardest part. We’re optimistic about something, we make the change and the car doesn’t seem to want to improve. There’s not much we can do – we just have to drive like this. “You’re trying and if you do a decent lap you’re 1.2 seconds behind.”

Toto Wolff confirmed that Lewis Hamilton is very disappointed, but when asked – by Austrian newspaper Osterreich – if the seven-time world champion was considering leaving Formula 1, the team manager replied: “I see a happy Lewis when we start the day and then a somber Lewis when testing has gone worse than expected.

But Lewis is treating it positively. We try to lift each other up. You can only leave if you don’t like something anymore, but Lewis loves to fight. He is in fantastic physical condition, his lifestyle is extremely disciplined and he has many, many years ahead of him.”

Bounces aren’t the only problem

The Austrian also explained that porpoises are not the only shortcoming of the Mercedes W13. And George Russell argued that the phenomenon is more intense than ever in Australia this year.

With that in mind, Wolf explained: “Our jumps are worse [από της Ferrari] because we wear them in the curves. The difference is this Ferrari only jumps in straight lines. This is strenuous for the driver, but it only takes a little time. As soon Ferrari it rotates, it is stable again”.

Wolf went on to say that there are other issues with the W13. “The car is severely overweight, and we don’t quite get it either. “And there’s no point in bringing upgrades because it’s possible that the higher buoyancy will make the bounce problem worse.”

And the Austrian acknowledged that it is now very likely that 2022 will bring an end to Mercedes’ dominance in the F1 hybrid era: “Now we have to look at the races as a kind of test to further develop the car so that it is up to date. The development of such a car is a science, advanced physics, and somewhere we went the wrong way.

I’ve stopped thinking in terms of trials or three days and I’m thinking in terms of years. That must be a bad bracket, not an uncontrollable descent. It has to be a clamp and that’s why we need to fix it now – not on the timer but spiritually.”concluded Wolf.