Once again, here we are, discussing Mercedes’ woes in F1. The kind of hold that the brand has in the consumer market is not translating to F1 success in the last 2 years. And driving the W14 patiently race weekend after race weekend is Lewis Hamilton. Well, after the Austrian GP, we can’t use the term patient. But the driving and struggle still go on. And to increase the distress, instead of bettering things, Mercedes’ upgrades for the British GP have brought back 2022 problems.

When the new regulations about car design kicked in 2022, all teams were suffering from porpoising. The porpoising was worst for Mercedes, with the drivers’ heads visible bobbing inside the W13. After new upgrades, that problem had been nipped in the bud. But in FP1 in Silverstone, the W14 seemed to be doing a similar thing again. Peter Windsor commented on this and even gave a comparison of the contrasting performances in the two practice sessions.

Windsor said on his YouTube channel, as quoted by f1maximaal, “At Mercedes, there were complaints about bouncing, and in the case of George Russell, also about vibrations. He didn’t seem to be happy at all. It wasn’t a good morning for Mercedes. They don’t really know where they stand, because they didn’t use the soft band in that session.”

But Windsor did highlight the silver lining for Mercedes that came in FP2. He said, “In the afternoon session, Mercedes did drive on the soft tire and that didn’t look good, but in the long runs things didn’t go so badly for Mercedes. In the race simulation, we see a better comparison for Mercedes, and there it looks more promising. Hamilton drove 33.6 on the softs, and Carlos Sainz drove about the same times. Not a bad afternoon for Mercedes in the end.”

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Hamilton’s statements after the practice sessions followed the theme that Windsor set when speaking about the FP1 performance.

Lewis Hamilton Gives Grim Update to His Home Crowd

Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff had spoken about a big upgrade package to the W14 that would be introduced at the British GP. But according to the time charts in FP1 and FP2, they might have accidentally applied some downgrades. In FP1, Hamilton finished in P12 and his teammate George Russell finished in P14. And FP2 was worse, with Russell finishing P12, and Hamilton, P15.

In an interview with Sky Sports, Hamilton said “Car-wise, we are battling the same thing the majority of the time. It’s a tough car to drive. No matter what we do to set it up, it continues to be a tough car to drive.” Echoing him was Russell, who too struggled to find pace on Friday.

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The British crowd and the LH army can only pray that, of all things that could go wrong, porpoising is not one of them. And all Hamilton and Russell can do is drive the car and hope that their home GP brings some good luck their way.