Since the regulation change in 2022, Mercedes are struggling to get back to the top. And to make things worse, the team imploded at the Qatar Grand Prix. A confident Lewis Hamilton got a brilliant launch into turn 1, but his teammate didn’t get the memo! The two inadvertently collided, spelling trouble for team dynamics within the Brackley Outfit. But Hamilton was eager to rewrite the script when the team arrived in Austin.

The engineers at Mercedes had been working hard to bring a substantial floor redesign for the W14 at the United States Grand Prix. With the hope of improving the car’s cornering ability, the team had also opted to run the car lower for more ground effect. While the pace advantage was clear in the sprint race, the lower setup proved costly on Sunday! Lewis Hamilton was handed a harsh disqualification post-US GP for an infringement related to barge-board wear. While this was the stuff of nightmares for Hamilton, the seven-time world champion had some positive takeaways from the weekend!

Lewis Hamilton stays positive despite disqualification from the US GP

As the dust settled in Austin, Lewis Hamilton found himself just seconds behind Max Verstappen for the lead. Even though the Brit finished P2, he was disqualified post-race. But after a sensational drive all weekend, Hamilton held his head high. The pace of the Mercedes was noticeably faster throughout the weekend, with the first glimmer of hope coming in FP1. They were instantly in the mix with Leclerc and Verstappen, and the rest of the weekend was quite similar, if not for the DSQ.

Reflecting on the new floor update Hamilton was quoted by motorsport.com, “Definitely I think the step that we were able to take this weekend has given me a little bit more confidence in the car, to throw it into the corners,“.Thanks to the update, the W14 had improved on its tendency to understeer, allowing the car to turn into corners better. “I really enjoyed driving around this track. There are still some of the fundamental issues that we’re having with the car, which won’t change until next year.” – Hamilton was reserved in his opinion for this year’s progress.

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Well, it’s no secret that the Brit loves the Circuit of the Americas, so was it the floor update that aided Mercedes, or was it Hamilton’s pace? He added, “Maybe it was [worth] only a tenth [as an] upgrade, for example, but there was at least a tenth of confidence that it gave me,”. The connection between the driver and the car plays a bigger role than you’d think!

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If the machinery isn’t confidence-inducing, the risks the driver will be willing to take each time will be negligible. Reflecting on updates like this, he said “So, it’s quite interesting what you see when you do have those, it’s like a double knock-on effect.”

When will Hamilton’s streak of bad luck end?

Unfortunately, Lewis Hamilton has fallen off the radar for the top spot since 2021 ended. The Mercedes outfit has struggled to provide him with the right car since the ground-effect era, and their troubles have only spiraled. Whilst the seven-time world champion clearly still has his pace, the world has been against him. Whether it was the Qatar GP fiasco with teammate George Russell, or the post-race disqualification after a well-deserved P2 finish.

However, Toto Wolff is positive it was not just Hamilton’s skill that got the Mercedes to P2, but the engineers were given their due credit too. When Toto Wolff was asked whether it was Hamilton’s love for COTA that was responsible for such a performance, he replied, “Lewis was always very strong in Austin. And when he’s on a roll he’s unstoppable. But I wouldn’t think that we would have such a performance, just because it’s one of Lewis’s good tracks.”

The boss at Mercedes is hopeful that the floor update has played its part in their improvement this weekend, “The update directionally functioned from the get-go. Lewis said he felt the rear end. George never kind of got to the point where he said the car was good. We need to learn about that, that is such a factor.” While Hamilton had a good weekend without considering the DSQ, Russell was struggling to match the seven-time world champion.

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If Mercedes wants to get back to the level that they used to be, they need to figure out how to keep the FIA at bay and especially understand the risk they are taking with their set-ups. But if Hamilton’s raw pace is any indicator of what’s to come, the LH Army might rejoice once again! Stay tuned for more