Lewis Hamilton surprised everyone with his performance at the first race of the season in Bahrain. The Mercedes driver, despite not being on the pace with Red Bull and Ferrari, pushed his car to the limit. Eventually, he got the fruits of his labor as he finished the race in P3 to bring home an unlikely podium for the team.

The Hamilton fans could not hide their excitement at seeing their driver on the podium. Hamilton put up a story on his Instagram to thank his fans for their constant support. ” This is big energy!! I’m so grateful to see this, your incredible support! Thank you all,” wrote Lewis.

It was an unexpected result for the German team and the 7-time world champion, as they have been struggling since testing.

Lewis Hamilton explains the problems in the W13 for the 2022 season

As reported by F1.com, the 37-year-old mentioned that there are a lot of inherent problems with the 2022 Mercedes that the team needs to solve in the coming weeks. He mentioned he cannot get close to other cars despite having DRS and cannot make gains in the race.

“The thing is with our car, we have a car that’s bouncing a lot everywhere. It’s not just in a straight line. We have a very poor rear end through all the low-speed corners and all the medium-speed corners. The only place that is generally quite good is, relatively, in the high [speed corners] and then we are very slow in the straight line. So, I don’t know if it’s drag or if it’s power. We haven’t figured that out yet,” said Lewis.

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The world champions are quite a bit behind their rivals, Red Bull and Ferrari. On pure race pace, both Hamilton and Russell were nowhere in the picture and could not fight for the win. If they want to contend in the 2022 championship, they need to solve their issues and make a more competitive car.

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As the team and the drivers have previously mentioned, it will take time for them to develop the W13 and make it more competitive. Hopefully, for them, the 2022 car becomes quicker and reliable before the Silver Arrows are out of contention for both the championships.