“He never gives up,” Former F1 driver, Anthony Davidson backs Lewis Hamilton to push Mercedes forward during 2022
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Lewis Hamilton
Anthony Davidson, an ex-Formula One driver has recently given his verdict on the state of affairs at Mercedes and has warned everyone that Lewis Hamilton should not be underestimated as he and Mercedes look to put a strong outing in Australia.
The silver arrows have gotten off to a shaky start during the first two races of the season and have looked way off the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari.
Lewis Hamilton came into the 2022 season with a very optimistic outlook but after the first two races of the season, things are not looking very promising for the Brackley-based Mercedes team.
Lewis started the 2022 campaign with the hope of challenging for the driver’s title but after the first two races, it has been made very clear that Mercedes is the third quickest team on the grid and this has put doubts if Lewis would be able to win his eighth world title this season.
The silver arrows are suffering from the porpoising issue and because of this, they are not able to run the W13 very close to the ground and thus are not able to get the maximum performance out of the W13.
Anthony Davidson who serves as the simulator driver for Mercedes has however backed Hamilton to push the team forward. While talking about the Brit Davidson has said, “To underestimate him, that would be wrong.”
“He never gives up. And he will continue to push the envelope until the problem is fixed.”
“He was prepared to go to extremes with the set-up in Jeddah. He found a good rhythm in the race. Sooner or later he will know how to balance the car and the driving style. Lewis is a driver who is incredibly adaptable.”
Anthony Davidson believes the current W13 is a “wild horse” that cannot be tamed
“I could already see in Bahrain – this car does not lie at all as I had felt it in the race simulator. That’s when alarm bells went off for me,” said the Brit.
“Mercedes’ biggest problem is that they can’t drive with the ground clearance they want. Other teams, however, can.”
“I see Red Bull Racing’s race car scraping the ground with sparks flying, so I really get the impression that they couldn’t put the car lower. But their car doesn’t seem to suffer from porpoising.”
“Mercedes would love to run with a floor gap like Red Bull Racing, but as soon as they do that, the car starts to bounce more, and that’s not only uncomfortable for the driver and for the material, it also costs time.”
“I see this not only on the straights but also in fast corners. The car then looks like a wild horse. I think there’s a lot more potential in the Mercedes, it’s just not unlockable because of this phenomenon.”
As for how soon Mercedes can come up with a fix, Davidson is not expecting them to escape “no man’s land”, adrift of Ferrari and Red Bull but ahead of the midfield, imminently.
“They are in no man’s land at the moment.”
“They are not a real challenger to the top two teams, but they have more speed than the midfield competitors.”
“I assume that Mercedes will get to the bottom of the problem, but I also believe that it will not happen overnight.”
Anthony Davidson has shown confidence in the Mercedes team and feels that Mercedes would be able to get on top of the porpoising issue but is reluctant to put out a specific date or time as to when it is going to happen.
The upcoming Grand Prix is in Australia and it will be interesting to see how much of a handle has the team managed to get over the porpoising issue that is pushing them in the wrong direction in the constructor’s championship.
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Rishabh Negi
(3244 Articles Published)