The previous Hamilton slow start that Mercedes can learn from in F1 2022

For the first time since the 2009 British Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was knocked out in the first part of Formula 1 qualifying on pure pace, having been pipped to safety by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll. In that, it was a bigger slap in the face for Hamilton and Mercedes than the one Chris Rock received from Will Smith during Sunday night’s Oscars.

Hamilton looked all at sea in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. Differences in set-up between his and George Russell’s cars contrived to carry the latter into Q3, as Hamilton struggled to find enough grip over a single lap and was left uncharacteristically uncompetitive in the process.

It was better for the seven-time champion in the race, despite early difficulties firing up the hard compound tyre, but the closure of the pitlane during the virtual safety car period then proved to be his undoing after he’d made it up to sixth place. He finished 10th as a result having had to pit for mediums once the pitlane re-opened as the VSC was switched off, leaving him to quip “are there even points for that position?” at the end of the race.

Russell, by contrast, had a lonely race to fifth. His only real battle of the day took place early in the grand prix as he dispatched Esteban Ocon at Turn 27, but was unable to catch the leading Red Bulls and Ferraris.

For a team that has won all but one title in the turbo-hybrid era, Mercedes has now been yanked back down to earth with a shattering bump – or rather, a continuous series of bumps. Testing exposed a series of issues within the new Mercedes W13 and, with limited time before the Barcelona and Bahrain sessions and the start of the season, these issues remain unresolved.

Thus, overcoming the hurdles placed by the 2022 ruleset will prove to be the team’s sternest test as it looks to get back within the cut-and-thrust of the front-guard action. In pace terms, Mercedes has over half a second to find to be in regular contention for poles, and more than that to restore the advantage it had previously over the other teams. It’s not going to be the work of a moment.

Mercedes would not have expected Hamilton to be battling Haas for position after the teams bookended the 2021 constructors' championship

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Before addressing the bigger issues at play, Mercedes is still in the process of finding the “sweet spot” in its set-up of the W13, hence the large delta between the two cars in qualifying in Jeddah. Team principal Toto Wolff explained the difficulties in finding the point at which the Mercedes can consistently sing after qualifying, adding that the differences between Hamilton’s and Russell’s set-ups weren’t hugely different.

“We were experimenting with set-ups to find out where the sweet spot of the car is,” Wolff said. “And so on Lewis' side, they went a bit bolder. And the outcome was that basically they had no rear end in the car. That explains the big lap time deficit.

“You can see between Lewis' and George's performance, there was not a huge set of changes that happened but they were big enough to have dramatic consequences on the performance of the car between going out in Q1 and making it solidly into Q3. So that's why this car is so tricky to set up. And we had a lower drag rear wing, we took the gurney off, but still it wasn't enough to shave more drag off the car.

"The faster you go the worse it gets, so it makes it harder for qualifying because we turn the engines up, maximum power, go quicker down the straight which causes more downforce and causes more porpoising" George Russell

“But generally, I would say this isn't the single problem. We have many parts of the car that don't work, that we don't understand, that don't perform enough. And this is not where we all expect the car to be.”

Wolff added after the race that the start to the team’s 2022 season has been “an exercise in humility”, and that he wished his team’s cars could join the “fun games” in the battle for the lead.

“We were right in the middle of those fun games in the front and from talking as a F1 stakeholder and benefiting from a great show, that is really spectacular, to look at. But on the other side it is extremely painful to be not part of those fun games. And that by quite a chunk of laptime deficit. We're not going to rest until we are back in the mix. It's […] an exercise in humility, and it's going to make us stronger in the end, even though it's not fun right now.”

There are two bigger problems at stake with the W13, however. One is the inability to get on top of the porpoising issues, which inconveniently remain hidden from the confines of the windtunnel and thus makes it harder for the aerodynamicists to explore. The other is in the relative lack of straightline performance, where the suggestions are that Mercedes hasn’t been able to find as much from its power unit as the other manufacturers have been able to.

Wolff says its "extremely painful" not to be fighting for wins at present

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

However, Russell says that the porpoising problems account for “99%” of the car’s issues, which has restricted Mercedes from running lower ride heights as the car begins to oscillate wildly as downforce builds. Being able to isolate the issue may, if the windtunnel continues to yield no answers, require further experimentation on-track in practice sessions. Being able to break the car out of its natural heave frequency will go a long way to curing that, but it may require a redesign of the floor to achieve that.

PLUS: The mechanics behind porpoising in F1 - and how to fix it

"There’s so many factors at play between the mechanical stiffness of the car and then the stiffness of the floors, the design of the floors, tyre pressures,” Russell explained after the race. “Engine mode as well, the faster you go the worse it gets, so it makes it harder for qualifying because we turn the engines up, maximum power, go quicker down the straight which causes more downforce and causes more porpoising.

“We almost need to pre-empt this issue and also in the race when you have the DRS closed, you have more downforce than you do with the DRS open, and that’s another factor we need to consider. We’re still learning and that’s why we’re far from optimal. But that’s why I said if we solve the porpoising, that would cure I would say 99% of our issues.”

As for any powertrain concerns? For now, there’s been no tacit admission from Mercedes that the engines have any larger problems, but power on the straights seemed to be a problem for all of the Mercedes-powered teams in Jeddah. It could be mere coincidence that all four teams – McLaren, Aston Martin, and Williams the others - have simply struggled with getting on top of the aero side of the regulations, but it’s worth considering that the switch to E10 fuel has resulted in further obstacles in recovering power from the internal combustion engine. But that’s just speculation at this point.

For Hamilton, it must feel like a repeat of the 2009 season – a year in which McLaren got the new aerodynamic regulations wrong off the bat and had to sink a lot of resources into fixing it. Then, it was very clear where the gains could be found; installing a double diffuser and following the rest of the field down the path of an outwashing front wing took the team from Q1 eliminations to victories and podiums in the second half of the year.

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The first half of McLaren's season with the MP4-24 was miserable, however - notwithstanding the disqualification Hamilton received in Melbourne after failing to disclose that he had allowed Jarno Trulli to repass him for third under a safety car, after the Italian went off the track. Although the then-reigning world champion was able to drag that year's McLaren into places it had no right being, the Woking squad had just 14 points at the midway point of the season.

It was only at the Hungarian Grand Prix that the biggest series of upgrades took effect and immediately turned the car from a midfielder to a race-winner. The turnaround was staggering, leaving even then-BBC pundit Eddie Jordan speechless at the progress. It remains uncertain which of the two was the bigger feat.

McLaren started 2009 on the back-foot, but Hamilton was a winner by mid-season in Hungary. Can Mercedes repeat the feat?

Photo by: Rainer W. Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

That said, the Mercedes isn’t anywhere near as troubled relative to its rivals as the McLaren was 13 years ago. The W13 is still among the top three cars on the grid and, on a ‘normal’ weekend, should have fifth and sixth places at its beck and call. But that’s simply not on the agenda for a team used to winning races. Mercedes knows where the bulk of its problems lie but, like any engineering problem, it must strive to find a solution and get its season back on track.

It might be the case that the short-term pain could be Mercedes’ gain in the long term; armed with the knowledge of how to dial out porpoising with the new regulations, it can carry that forward into future seasons while the teams with a more charmed start to life in 2022 may encounter those bumps later down the road.

Hamilton, Russell and Wolff have confidence in the team to turn around a sub-optimal start to life in 2022 – and if there’s anyone who can turn the tide, you’d have to bet on Mercedes to do it.

Mercedes is suffering short-term pain which should lead to long-term benefits if it can crack its porpoising issues

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images