"We need to find out what’s wrong with this car before we can make another car" - Lewis Hamilton warns Mercedes over shifting focus to 2023 F1 car

Lewis Hamilton wants Mercedes to find the root causes behind the W13's issues before switching focus onto next season’s car.

By switching focus early without enough understanding of their current car, Hamilton felt that there was more potential for things to go wrong. Speaking to Mundo Deportivo, he said:

“I think we need to find out what’s wrong with this car before we can make another car. If we started making another car, we could easily get it wrong. I think it’s about understanding this fully, which we haven’t done yet, and giving us a path to where to go.”

Lewis Hamilton previously called the W13 as one of the worst cars he has driven in his F1 career, describing it has “peaky” and unpredictable. Built on a radical concept that takes Mercedes’ favoured approach of prioritising efficiency above everything else to the extreme, the car suffers from key deficiencies that they seem unable to fix.

The foremost of which is porpoising, the violent bouncing of the rear axle at high speeds, which the team themselves called the root of their issues. After struggling to find a suitable fix through the first six races, their upgrades at Spain finally seemed to tame the issue.

The very next race in Monaco, however, highlighted another deficiency with the car, squashing whatever optimism that the team had following Barcelona.

Mercedes haven’t completely given up their hopes of battling for the championship, and will still hope to join Red Bull and Ferrari in a three-way battle sometime later this season. The team, however, have also indicated that they may write off this season entirely and focus all their efforts on the next instead.

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton has reportedly told the team what sort of improvements he is expecting from next year’s car. He said:

“There are definitely a lot of things I wouldn’t want from this car in next year’s car, so I’ve already included them.”

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Lewis Hamilton “praying” to avoid a repeat of Monaco issues at Azerbaijan GP

Lewis Hamilton says he is praying for a better car at the 2022 F1 Azerbaijan GP after suffering through a miserable weekend in Monaco. The Briton has claimed that the W13’s bouncing around Monte Carlo was one of the worst that he has experienced in his career. Speaking to planetf1, he said:

“I’m praying that the car doesn’t feel like it does here; this is the worst that it has felt so far just with the bumps. I am pretty sure our [car] is so stiff that the suspension is driving back into the ground. I’m looking forward to a more open track [in Baku], I’m just praying it’s not as bumpy as here.”

Mercedes are confident that their issues around Monte Carlo are unique to that circuit and expect to be much closer to the frontrunners.