"I’m just sorry that we weren’t able to be in that position" - Lewis Hamilton would have 'raced' Max Verstappen to 2022 F1 Hungarian GP win without Mercedes 'screwing up' the DRS

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff revealed that Lewis Hamilton could have potentially fought for his first race win of the 2022 season last weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix, had he not had DRS issues during Saturday's qualifying. Despite showing great pace, the Briton was only able to set the seventh-fastest qualifying lap as a result of his DRS failure during Q3. His teammate George Russell, on the other hand, went on to take his maiden pole, indicating just how fast the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton could have been at the Hungaroring.

Wolff admitted that he was "sorry" to have missed a good opportunity to be in the running for a win at the Hungarian Grand Prix and said:

“With Lewis [Hamilton], I think without us screwing up with the DRS yesterday I think he would have raced Max [Verstappen] for the victory. But ‘would’ doesn’t count in this sport, it wasn’t the fact that I’m just sorry that we weren’t able to be in that position. I don’t know where he would have landed. Honestly, maybe he would have been a position or two up, what that would have changed for today, I don’t know. ”

He continued:

“But I can understand that the moment you realise you’re three-tenths down exiting sector one, the frustration is just big and you know you’ve just thrown it away. So the mistake is 100% on the team side for having had that technical glitch. The DRS shouldn’t fail on the last lap of qualifying and maybe that cost him the win today.”

Despite starting seventh on a track that is historically known to be very difficult to overtake on, Lewis Hamilton managed to secure his fifth consecutive podium with a second-place finish behind his 2021 title rival Max Verstappen.

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Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes' focus is on "next year’s car"

Over the first half of the season, the German team has managed to make significant progress, as indicated by its consecutive double podium finishes over the last two race weekends. Still, Lewis Hamilton admitted that while the team will continue to try and improve this season, over the coming months, the focus is likely to shift to the 2023 car.

In a post-race press conference at the French GP, Hamilton answered Sporstskeeda's question regarding the development of his car, and said:

“Whilst we continue to try and dial this [year’s] car in, of course, bit by bit, as we go into these next weeks - the next couple of months - the full focus will probably be into next year’s car.”

As a team that dominated F1 for eight consecutive seasons, Mercedes certainly did not expect to have as rough a start to the 2022 season as it did. However, the team has now managed to close the gap to Ferrari to merely thirty points in the Constructor Standings.

If Mercedes' strong form over the past few months is any indication of what can be expected from the team after the summer break, it can be assumed that Mercedes will be in a position to potentially fight for second in the constructors' championship.