Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says he must "protect" Lewis Hamilton during the team's tough start to 2022.
Porpoising problems with their W13 car have left the eight-time consecutive Constructors' champions battling for 'best of the rest' in the midfield behind Ferrari and Red Bull in the opening four races.
While teammate George Russell has finished in the top five at all four races so far, at Imola, Hamilton had his worst weekend of the year, finishing no higher than 13th in qualifying, Sprint or race.
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And after Sunday's Grand Prix, Wolff apologised to the seven-time world champion on the radio, calling his car "undrivable".
“I have to protect him. It’s not his low,” the Austrian told Reuters. “It’s the low of the car performance.
“The guy is the best driver in the world and he is not having a machine and equipment underneath him to be able to execute.
“In a way, it is even irrelevant whether you come eighth, 12th, 15th, doesn’t matter, it’s all bad.”
Legend is built over time 💪💜 pic.twitter.com/iKHbAoUe71
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 27, 2022
Mercedes' problems have led some to question Hamilton's future at the team he joined in 2013 beyond this season, something the Briton later rejected.
And Wolff too is confident Lewis will stay.
“He’s going to help the team to sort themselves out and we are sticking together through good and bad times and today certainly was a very bad day,” he added.
Mercedes had the F1 paddock a gasp during pre-season when they turned up to the Bahrain test with an upgraded car featuring almost no sidepods.
At the time, it was thought the concept could be a gamechanger but now some are wondering if the team should revert to a more conventional design.
“You don’t need to throw away the goodness, but if there are fundamental areas that don’t allow us to unlock the potential that we believe is in the car, then you need to cut your losses,” Wolff admitted.
“It would mean you say ‘where is the baseline now?’. Is there a new one we can start on where we believe we can unlock more potential?
“If we thought that, we would have done it five months ago. We believed this was the development line we needed to take. So it is quite a tricky exercise.”
