F1 News

Hamilton is stuck in his head: ''He's comparing to last year''

25 April 2022 at 08:06
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  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton ended a dramatic weekend in thirteenth place and was not satisfied with his car afterwards. However, George Russell drove that same car to P4 and Olav Mol thinks he knows why.

For Hamilton, 2022 is a major setback. After losing his eighth world title to Max Verstappen in the very last round in 2021, he had hoped to strike back in 2022. The W13 of Mercedes is not remotely comparable to its predecessors and can be found in the midfield.

Setback for Hamilton

Whereas Russell got the maximum out of that car and finished fourth in Imola, Hamilton couldn't get any further than P13. Mol compares the situation of Hamilton with the situation of Sebastian Vettel in 2014. Then the reigning champion of that year was run over by Daniel Ricciardo, but according to Mol that was mainly because Vettel was used to getting a better car from Red Bull. That now seems to be the case with Mercedes as well.

''Lewis is probably comparing things to last year. George Russell doesn't know the previous Mercedes very well and just thinks 'this is what I have and that's what I'm going to do with'. Then you drive much more freely. There are drivers who, with a car that is not 100 percent, can still get to 99, but there are also drivers who, because the car is not 100 percent, cannot get further than 90 themselves. That's where Lewis Hamilton seems to be stuck in his head,'' said the commentator at Ziggo Sport.