"I don't really have a concern" - Lewis Hamilton not bothered by FIA investigation into his slow pace delta during 2022 F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton was under investigation by the FIA for driving unnecessarily slowly during the Azerbaijan GP qualifying. When questioned on the investigation while speaking to the media after the race, the Mercedes driver claimed that he did not have much of a concern as he maintained his delta time.

Hamilton said:

“I don’t really have a concern. First of all, I was off line and you have to be within a delta time and I was within my delta time. I wasn’t below that out lap pace, so within that delta time I should be able to drive at the speed I want. I was off line, so I wasn’t holding everyone up. I was trying to get a tow because we’re so slow in a straight line but the guys behind didn’t want to go by. So, I then went off and did my lap.”

Lewis Hamilton, however, was quite positive about the prospects of the main race. The Briton will start the race in P7 but he felt that the race offered a lot of opportunities to do something different. He also touched on the porpoising phenomenon, Mercedes' Achilles heel, as he confessed that the team lost a lot of performance due to that, saying:

“There’s lots to look forward to tomorrow! It’s a tricky and chaotic race with lots that can happen. It was a difficult qualifying session because we’re constantly pushing. We have a very, very small window where we can work this car, and everything we try doesn’t give us what we want. We’re making lots of changes, but we still encounter the bouncing which loses us a lot of performance. All of the performance is when you get the car low so we’re getting lower and lower but it’s bouncing more than the other cars and putting pressure on our bodies.”

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We're just very slow on the straights: Lewis Hamilton

Despite admitting that the car was losing speed down the straights, Lewis Hamilton hoped that the car had a better race pace that could help him make places in the race.

He said:

“But we’re still there! We’re just very slow on the straights, which might be a struggle tomorrow in the race. We’re going to give it everything and maybe we’ll have, I hope, better race pace.”

Meanwhile, Hamilton has lost out to his teammate George Russell in the last 6 races and will be hoping to set the record straight this time around.