"It's a tall order" - Lewis Hamilton says winning world championship in 2022 is 'definitely tough'

Lewis Hamilton believes adding another world championship title to his tally of seven would be a “tall order” in 2022, as Mercedes continue to struggle with a lack of competitiveness.

When asked what he thought of Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff’s assessment that they stood a 20 percent chance of winning the title this season, Hamilton said:

“I’m not a mathematician so I don't really know what the percentage chances are. But it's definitely tough. It's a tall order. That's for sure.”

After shocking the paddock with their radical “no sidepod design” at Bahrain pre-season testing, Mercedes were expected to be in the thick of the world championship battle.

However, contrary to expectations, their radical design seems to have backfired, producing various issues, the most prominent of which is the horrible “porpoising” at high speeds.

The violent bouncing risks damaging the car while robbing drivers of valuable confidence to attack the corners. As a result, the team has had to sacrifice performance by raising the car's ride height just to make it more driveable.

In previous years, when they experienced similar issues, the Silver Arrows threw massive amounts of resources into finding solutions, turning their situation around in no time.

However, with their hands tied due to the cost cap and aero testing restrictions in 2022, the team is struggling to claw back any meaningful performance out of the car.

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Lewis Hamilton is not giving up on title hopes yet

Despite the grim situation that Mercedes have found themselves in this season, Lewis Hamilton is not losing hope yet.

Considering that there are still 20 races left to go this season, Hamilton believes they still stand a chance at turning things around.

Speaking at the FIA press conference in Imola, he said:

“There's a long, long way to go. There's still time for us to turn this around. There's still time for us to fix this car and extract the full potential and that's what I know that all the team are working flat out to try to achieve.

“I know that everyone at factory has been working very hard over to try and bring even the smallest bits of improvement to the car. We hope that we do move slightly forward this weekend.”

Lewis Hamilton sounded dejected when he was knocked out of Q2 at the Emilia Romagna GP and could only manage P15 for the Imola Sprint race. However, he may find solace in the fact that the W13 seems to be better in race trim compared to qualifying trim.

Both in Saudi Arabia and Australia, Mercedes showed decent performances to take home a solid haul of points, even if they failed to threaten the front runners.