If you think it’s just the Tifosi and Charles Leclerc’s priest fan who resort to praying when they want things to go well, be rest assured it isn’t just them. Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has joined the club. But instead of praying for Ferrari, he’s praying for Mercedes, especially considering how the first half of its season didn’t go according to plan. And all of Hamilton’s worries built up to and culminated at the Belgian GP last weekend as the ghosts of his horrific 2022 past returned.

Since the 2023 season started, Mercedes has been on the back foot. After revamping its W14 midway through the first half, the Brackley squad seemed to be progressing in the right direction. But after a few up-and-down race weekends recently, the race in Spa revealed a striking problem that came out of nowhere. Apart from having difficulties handling the car’s rear end, Hamilton revealed the car started porpoising again. 

After the 2022 ground effect regulations, Mercedes struggled to get a handle on its porpoising issue almost throughout 2022. And when they thought they had gotten around to solving the problem in 2023, it’s back to haunt them. In a post-race interview, as quoted by dailymail.co.uk, Hamilton said, “[The car] was not bouncing a little bit; it was bouncing like last year. I couldn’t keep up with the cars in front.” He continued, “The team don’t know what caused it, and it is a concern to me. I know what I want, and I am praying for it.”

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He wants a car that is easier to drive, a car that is easier to understand, and a car that can compete against Red Bull. And at the moment, the W14 is none of those things. And despite finishing in P4, with his teammate George Russell in P6, Mercedes is facing a bigger conundrum than ever because it has no direction going into the summer break.

Lewis Hamilton & Co.’s summer break is a big unknown

Compared to most other teams, Mercedes has no clear picture of how the W14 functions and what conditions suit it. And that’s the problem. Mercedes doesn’t know what to work on because it doesn’t have representative and conclusive data it can use because of all its ups and downs this season. And F1 expert and journalist Peter Windsor pointed exactly that out and revealed another big unknown.

In his post-race analysis on YouTube, he said, “Good luck to Lewis going into the summer break. Not sure Mercedes have any of the answers they really need in terms of what they’re going to be doing with the car. And is performance still on a full fuel load a big question mark as we saw in Hungary, and to some extent [in Belgium]?” Because of the W14’s slow race pace in Spa and its porpoising problems, as Hamilton revealed, he just couldn’t keep up with the top three. Hence, he had to settle for fourth at a track where Mercedes has done well in the past.  

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Can Lewis Hamilton & Co. figure out which direction to go in, or is praying for the best the only answer left for the Brackley squad?