BARCELONA, SPAIN - FEBRUARY 25: George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W13 during Day Three of F1 Testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on February 25, 2022 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)
Lewis Hamilton hasn’t been at his best this season and finds himself in 7th place earning 28 points in the 2022 F1 Championship
Lewis Hamilton was tipped as the favorite to win the 2022 F1 World Championship but as things stand after four races, Hamilton finds himself low down in seventh place on the drivers’ championship leaderboard. Hamilton’s team Mercedes has had no better fortunes and occupies third place in the constructors’ championship, way behind the run-away teams Ferrari and Red Bull. After a third-place finish in Bahrain, Hamilton has failed to make it to the podium in the next three races, registering P10, P4, and P13 finishes in Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Italy respectively.
Lewis Hamilton himself believes that neither him nor his team, Mercedes are in a position to challenge got the championship title. Speaking on his team’s chances this season, Hamilton said, “We are obviously not fighting for the championship. But we are fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year. That’s all we can hope for right now. We stick together. We try to motivate everyone. This is the situation we are faced with.”
The British driver further added, “A lot of work is going on in the background. But it is what it is, it’s what we have. Ultimately, we haven’t got it right this year but everyone is working as hard as we can to correct it.”
Mercedes’ plight has returned Hamilton to a situation with which he has not been familiar for more than a decade. Not since 2009 has he driven a car this uncompetitive – and back then he was a hungry one-time world champion with so much more to achieve. Now, he is the most successful driver in the history of the sport and will be 38 next year. But he says his determination to fight on and return to competitiveness is undiminished.
“I am 100% committed to this team,” Hamilton said. “There is nowhere else I want to be, just because we have hit a rough patch, it is not in my DNA to back out. We can fix this. It is going to be a painful year that we are going to have to ride out together“, he added.