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Lewis Hamilton in 2022 has had bad luck. His recent outing in Monaco didn’t prove to be good at all. A red flag in Q3 meant he couldn’t improve his position, and for the rest of the race, he was stuck behind Fernando Alonso. However, a former Mercedes engineer believes that Lewis needs a car that he can trust. 

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Ex-Mercedes engineer explains the difference between the two 7-time world champions

Philipp Brändle, who worked with Mercedes on trackside-aero, recently talked about Lewis’s problems with the car. He analyzed the Monaco GP and made a very interesting comment. 

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He said that Hamilton needs extreme confidence in his car. So if he goes into a platform that works well and he has confidence in, he will be able to turn the tide. He further added that Hamilton “doesn’t have the technical background that Schumacher or Nico Rosberg had. He simply needs to trust the car. But that’s why he really feels the car.” (translated via Google translate)

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He also mentioned, “Leclerc was already more than 40 points ahead at the beginning of the year. It’s still a long season.” 

READ MORE: Ex Mercedes Confidante Replaces FIA Executive Director Peter Bayer After Strange Step Down

Despite the odds, Brändle believes that Lewis Hamilton shouldn’t be written off. Philipp suspects that Hamilton needs “extreme confidence” in the W13 and can definitely bounce back if he gets a platform that works well; one in which he has confidence. 

A frantic weekend for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes failed to impress in Monaco as they looked nowhere near as competitive as they did in Barcelona. Although Mercedes boss Toto Wolff maintained it wasn’t the porpoising, it was quite evident that the team had to raise the car height. Speaking to The Race, Lewis said, “it felt like we improved the car in terms of bouncing, but we were slower”.

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Toto Wolff offered a further explanation that the Brackley team’s struggles weren’t just track specific; but rather down to the characteristic of the W13. “You can say what are the lessons that we learned in Barcelona and how do they apply to Monaco and the answer is there’s just nothing because it’s so different,” said Wolff.

Watch This Story: When F1 Drivers Had a Blast on Top Gear Featuring Hamilton, Vettel & Ricciardo

As Formula 1 goes racing in Baku next time round; it will be interesting to see if Mercedes has found a solution to their problems in the slow-speed corners.

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Vaibhav Aatreya

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Vaibhav Aatreya is an F1 author at EssentiallySports. His ever-growing passion for the sport, combined with his willingness to learn the inside workings of Formula 1, led him to pursue his graduation in Mechanical Engineering. Having been following the world of motorsports for many years now, Vaibhav loves to pen down his thoughts, giving his take on the ongoings in the sport. Come Sunday, he can be seen cheering for McLaren as he believes the 'papaya team', sooner rather than later, will return to their glory days. He is also an ardent supporter of Kamui Kobayashi and strongly feels that the Japanese driver deserved a better car to suit his talents in F1. When not rooting for the 8-time Constructors' Champions, he is either learning about aviation or binging science fiction shows on Netflix.

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Ranvijay Singh

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