The sixth race of the 2022 season in Spain was full of thrilling surprises. One of these surprising moments was Hamilton’s recovery run, which gave everyone a glimpse of the old Lewis Hamilton, who fought until the end to win races. Despite that, Hamilton, at the moment, is still not on par with his young teammate George Russell.

The 2022 season hasn’t been kind to the seven-time world champion. The Mercedes duo has been struggling with the troublesome and unpredictable W13. However, Russell has managed to bring the best out of the German car. Moreover, George has even scored two podiums this season.

Former Formula 1 champion talked about Russell overshadowing Hamilton’s recovery run

The former F1 driver Jacques Villeneuve believes the seven-time world champion lost his winning mentality after colliding with Kevin Magnussen. He even asked Mercedes to retire from the race. However, Hamilton continued racing upon his team’s orders. Eventually, Lewis got back his competitive form and finished P5.

The 1997 world champion said, “Hamilton finished higher than he expected after the tussle with Magnussen. I thought his initial reaction, that he would rather have stopped after one lap, was strange. That’s not a driver who wants to fight, as if he knew he wasn’t going to beat his teammate anymore. Although at the end, we did see flashes of the old Hamilton when he climbed up the field.”

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Villeneuve further believes that the new addition George Russell has become the number one driver for the Brackley base instead of the seven-time world champion. Despite Hamilton’s magnificent recovery run, George is the better driver at the Brackley base. “But Russell has found his place in the team. He’s above his expensive teammate in the World Championship – and that stings,” said the former F1 driver.

Lewis Hamilton asks his team to continue the W13 developments

The 2022 Mercedes challenger has been suffering from significant porpoising. So, the German constructor has been looking for solutions. And they eventually found it ahead of the Spanish GP. The new improvements did help the Brackley base to score P3 and P5 in Barcelona.

Hamilton was impressed by the improvements and wanted his team to continue the developments. Talking about the new and improved W13, Hamilton said, “So, really interesting pace-wise. I mean, I hope that this continues in these next races.”

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The next race is the Monaco GP. It would be fascinating to see what the Brackley base gets for the race in the principality. Also, fans are keen to see who brings the most out of the W13 in the Monaco GP.