Mercedes on the Back Foot in Jeddah as Lewis Hamilton & George Russell Endure Extreme Porpoising

Mercedes didn’t have a decent performance during the pre-season and their poor performance even continued during the Bahrain GP. The Silver Arrow duo, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, were having trouble driving the 2022 challenger. Now they are in Jeddah for the second race, but the troubles with the W13 still following them in the Middle East.

After the Bahrain race last week, the seven-time world champion and George Russell went behind the wheels of W13 for the Friday Practice in Jeddah. The practice sessions on Day 1 are over and the German constructors are still struggling with the car. Hamilton and Russell finished P9 and P15 during FP1. But their performance improved during the second practice session, Hamilton at P5 and Russell at P6.

But both the drivers were complaining about experiencing extreme porpoising in the W13 during the second practice session. The Brackley base is dealing with this extreme porpoising a lot since their time in Bahrain last week.

The seven-time world champion reported on team radio, “A lot of bouncing.” He further switched to a spare seat to minimize the bouncing of the Mercedes W13. However, the Silver Arrow ace isn’t the only one who is having a problem with the bouncing issue. The young Brit Russel is also dealing with similar problems.

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Russell’s race engineer asked, “Pretty hardcore the bouncing?” The 24-year-old driver said yes to his race engineer’s question regarding the porpoising in the 2022 challenger.

Can Mercedes solve the issues in W13?

Mercedes came up with many controversial upgrades this season, yet they are unable to get the best out of their car this season. Lewis and George were even unable to get a front-row start at the Bahrain race last week. However, Hamilton bagged a third-place finish last week in the first race. But it was a lucky incident as both Red Bull cars retired from that race.

Silver Arrow’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin claimed that the Brackley based found lots of problems with their car and will come up with an upgrade in Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, team principal Toto Wolff didn’t agree with Shovlin. Instead, he said they might need a few more races before the W13 can fight in front of the grid.

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Mercedes duo is doing their best to keep winning points for their team. It is still the first day in Saudi Arabia. Let’s see if the Silver Arrows have got any surprises hidden in the store for the Saturday qualifying and Sunday race.