"We were compromised on George’s rear wing"- Lewis Hamilton had a better car than George Russell at 2022 F1 Austrian GP, admits Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton apparently had a better car under him as compared to his teammate George Russell at the 2022 F1 Austrian GP. The revelation was made by Mike Elliott, Mercedes' technical director, in the latest debrief video released by the team for the weekend in Austria.

Elliott touched on how everyone was on the backfoot after both Hamilton and Russell crashed in qualifying and had to scamper for parts. Ultimately, there was only one latest spec rear wing available and it went to the senior Briton.

The 48-year-old Briton said:

“When you crash two cars it’s always going to make for a very difficult weekend from then onwards. We had one complete spare we could fit and we had to get the best out of the two crashed floors to build another.”

“It meant we were compromised on George’s rear wing because we only had one complete spare rear wing that we chose to fit to Lewis’ car because he was going to have to come through the field, which meant that George had to fit a rear wing which was probably not the ideal level of downforce, it was a bit too much downforce for that circuit.”

“Having rebuilt the cars we also had to dial in the setup again and you’ve got very limited time in FP2 to do that and that was always going to be another compromise, and then finally having damaged two cars as badly as we did on Friday, the drivers are now in a position where if we damage them in the sprint race we may well be in a position where we couldn’t race on Sunday. So, all of that has to be factored in, and all of that sort of compromises your weekend.”

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Lewis Hamilton picked up his third consecutive podium in Austria

Lewis Hamilton ended up having a strong race at the 2022 F1 Austrian GP as he made his way through the field to finish on the podium. Meanwhile, his teammate George Russell had to serve a five-place penalty and finished 4th in the race.

After the race, Lewis Hamilton said:

“We had decent pace at different points of the race, even if I was racing a little bit in no-man’s land. It’s been a bit of a rough weekend for the team - but I’m grateful we got third and fourth today. That’s great points, and we have improved the car. Now we need to keep chipping away to get back to the front.”

Despite a rough weekend for the Silver Arrows in Austria, a P3 and P4 finish is a strong result as it aims to get back into championship contention.