For the first time in forever, Lewis Hamilton has been very slow: What’s going on? † Formula 1

13 years. Certainly in Formula 1 it is immortal. However, it has been a long time since Lewis Hamilton wasn’t racing around the track fast enough to survive his first qualifying session.

His 16th place in Saudi Arabia caused a wave of surprise among all sports fans yesterday. Suddenly, the Briton appears to have descended among the “normal” drivers once again with his silver Mercedes.

Where is the cause of the problem?

“At Mercedes, they’re really looking forward to getting performance out of the new car,” Play Sports commentator Sam DeJongyi said yesterday during qualifying.

“Then you have to try things. Often things are different with the two cars, because you have twice the amount of data to learn from. And Mercedes did that too after the last free practice. Perhaps only Hamilton has gone a little too far, causing his car to become unmanageable. “.

Dejonghe notes, among other things, “the porpoise,” the car’s wobble, is a headache coil at Mercedes.

“They tried to change a lot of the car’s floor. It was going in the right direction, but in F1 it’s in such small things…maybe the center of gravity is very high again. Every millimeter that changes can have a huge impact.”

It’s also a cause for concern in the world-famous racing stable: the engine in Hamilton’s car. Almost every car driven with a Mercedes power unit in recent weeks has performed below expectations.

Dejonghe nod: “Mercedes is clearly short on engine area. Since this season, they’ve been driving F1 cars with new gasoline (10 percent bioethanol instead of 5, editor). Ferrari has completely revamped the engine architecture to maximize.” We see a big difference in Red Bull. It may be because they underestimated this aspect at Mercedes.”

“The problem is that they can’t make huge changes to the engine anymore. After Bahrain there was an ‘engine freeze’ (engine development freeze, editor). Only in September can a number of components be added again. It can be modified. And then all are fixed. something until 2026.”

Does that mean a new reality will begin soon for Lewis Hamilton? The Briton won’t be competing for trophies anymore?

Dejonghe thinks things will not go well now.

“Currently we see more concordance of conditions. The field of participants is very close to each other. If the image of the car is incorrect, you will be severely punished in the results.”

“Ah, Mercedes anyway has a problem that they’re not currently fighting for the win. Then it might be smart of them to look to the extreme in their car setup now. So that Hamilton can respond later.”