The small details where Hamilton can make the difference for Mercedes

Finishing a lapped 13th in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was a bitter pill for Lewis Hamilton to swallow and encapsulated Mercedes' current Formula 1 struggles. But as a recent paddock insider explains, despite being saddled with an ineffective car, the seven-time world champion can have great unseen influence in its recovery

Jonathan Noble May 2, 2022, 10:34 AM

There is no getting away from the fact that Lewis Hamilton's difficult 2022 Formula 1 season hit a fresh low at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. On a weekend not helped by track characteristics (both surface and layout) that exacerbated porpoising problems, plus cooler temperatures that did not suit the Mercedes with its tyre warm up issues, the final nail in the coffin came when he was lapped by Max Verstappen in the race.

After his Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff came on the radio straight after the race to apologise for the undriveable car he had been given, Hamilton was clear about one point in his response: "Let's keep working hard".

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Author Jonathan Noble

Jonathan Noble is Motorsport.com’s Formula 1 editor. Having graduated from University of Sussex Jonathan worked for sports news agency Collings Sports reporting on F1, F3, touring cars and other sports, with articles appearing in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Reuters, Autosport and other publications. In 1999 he moved to Haymarket Publishing to become a senior editor at Autosport Special Projects, and one year later he became Autosport’s grand prix editor. In 2015 he moved to Motorsport Network, becoming the F1 editor for Motorsport.com. He is also a member of the Guild of Motoring Writers, and sits on the FIA Media Council.

Jonathan has won multiple awards for journalism - in 1991 he was the winner of the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Sir William Lyons’ Award for young journalists, in 2010 he was awarded the Outstanding Individual accolade for consumer journalism in the Haymarket wards, in 2011 he won Haymarket’s Scoop of the Year, and in 2018 he was awarded a prestigious Medaglia d’Oro at the Lorenzo Bandini Awards for his contribution to F1 journalism.