"It doesn’t really seem to want to improve" - Lewis Hamilton finds his Mercedes W13 'a tricky car'

Mercedes have had a tough start to the 2022 season. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is now left frustrated given the lack of pace and porpoising issues with his 2022 challenger.

As reported by formula1.com, Hamilton revealed that there is simply nothing Mercedes can do to improve their position so far. Speaking at the drivers' press conference ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, the Briton said:

“I feel okay, it was just a difficult session. It’s just nothing you change on the car makes a difference at the moment, so that’s the difficult thing. You get in very optimistic and then you make changes and then it doesn’t really seem to want to improve. We made some changes going into P2; P1 was better and then P2 ended up being a bit harder for me, so I don’t know. It’s a tricky car.”

The Mercedes driver expressed his dismay at the situation, saying:

“There’s just not a lot we can do. It’s the way it is so we’ll just have to drive with it. That’s the frustrating thing because you’re trying to push and you’re trying to catch, and even when you do a decent lap, it’s 1.2s down. So it’s difficult.”

The Briton had a disappointing qualifying session at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He then barely made it to the points with a tenth-place finish in the race behind his teammate George Russell.

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Lewis Hamilton hopes to be closer to the top this weekend in Melbourne

Mercedes have dominated the last eight F1 seasons with consecutive championship titles. The Silver Arrows, however, now find themselves fighting to make it to the top of the midfield instead of the podiums.

After a terrible outing in Jeddah, Lewis Hamilton expressed his hopes for a significantly improved weekend at the Australian Grand Prix. Speaking at the aforementioned press conference, he said:

“I’m really excited to get in the car. Naturally, it’s just been buzzing just trying to… like this morning, just super eager to get in the car, try this new track, hoping that it feels better here this weekend. Ultimately, we’ve not bought any upgrades to the cars - the same car generally as the last race - but with every little race we make small improvements, and I hope it just feels a bit better here. Plus, we had the four DRS zones. I mean, I’m just hoping we can race harder here.”

Lewis Hamilton devastatingly lost the 2021 championship title to Max Verstappen on the very last lap of the final race last year. His team, Mercedes, however, beat Red Bull to the constructors' title.