"I don't get tired of racing" - Lewis Hamilton refutes claims that racing is 'just coming around in a circle'

Lewis Hamilton leaves the paddock after the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia - Practice
Lewis Hamilton leaves the paddock after the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia - Practice

Lewis Hamilton claims that racing is not "just coming around in a circle". The seven-time world champion answered some fan questions in a social media video made by Mercedes.

Mercedes collaborated with the Mulberry School Trust in East London to create a social media video in which Hamilton answers questions asked by students. When asked if he gets tired of constantly racing, the Briton responded by saying that racing includes teamwork, car development, photoshoots, and many more elements. Lewis Hamilton said:

"I don't get tired of racing because there are so many different elements to the job. It's not just racing, it's not just coming around in a circle like some people think. You are working with a large group of people."
"There's car development, there's commercial shoots, photoshoots and there's traveling - to all these different places and destinations. There's a training regime. Then there's the fun part - the racing part which is like going to a new theme park every weekend and riding a new rollercoaster".

Mercedes went a bit 'too far' with Lewis Hamilton's W13 in Jeddah

It is now no secret that the Silver Arrows are on the backfoot in 2022. Ferrari and Red Bull are the teams to beat going forward due to stellar performances from drivers like Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. Meanwhile, the German team had a disappointing outing in Jeddah after Hamilton failed to get into Q2 for the first time since Brazil 2017.

However, as per Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin, the team went a bit too far with Lewis Hamilton's set-up ahead of qualifying. He said:

“Well, there’s a few reasons but fundamentally, we don’t really understand the car yet as well as we do it at the end of the year, we’ve only had two races with it."
"So, we are always exploring the setup with Lewis, trying to find a direction that delivers performance and we’d found a good direction from Friday into Saturday that he was able to try in the third practice session. We went quite a bit further on that into the qualifying session, but ultimately it was a bit too far.”

The 37-year-old finished in P10, bringing home only one point for his team. His 2022 teammate George Russell fared considerably better, having finished the race in P5. Only time will tell whether Lewis Hamilton and the team will be able to solve the porpoising problems that have plagued the W13.

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