The battle for P2 in the championship is still not over between Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez as the Mexican leads the Briton by 32 points. However, since just two races remain in the 2023 calendar, Hamilton revealed that he has given up the pursuit of P2.
Hamilton spoke about his fight for P2 at the press conference ahead of the Las Vegas GP and admitted that the Red Bull driver is too far ahead of him to catch up. He said, “He’s too far away now. 30 points in two races. He’d have to have two disasters and I’d have to be 2nd, basically.”
The Mercedes driver continued, “Honestly it really doesn’t make any difference if I’m 2nd or 3rd. I think we’ve still had an amazing year, given the car that we’ve had.” However, Hamilton surely knows that things could have been entirely different if not for the struggles he faced in three of the last four races.
The Briton’s charge to P2 faced a major setback when he crashed out on the first lap of the Qatar GP after tangling with his own teammate. Moreover, things went from bad to worse for him when he got disqualified from the United States GP for technical issues even after finishing P2 on track.
While Hamilton did manage to gain back some lost ground by finishing P2 in Mexico, his horrendous outing in Brazil once again shifted the battle for P2 in favor of Perez. Since the Silver Arrows have been so inconsistent this season, Hamilton cannot wait for the new campaign.
Lewis Hamilton cannot wait to part ways with the W14
The 2023 season has been extremely frustrating for Mercedes ever since the start. They started off the campaign with the innovative zero-side pod design which turned out to be a failure. Only once they changed their design philosophy midway through the season did they have some relief.
However, things once again went haywire for the Silver Arrows in the last race in Brazil, proving that there’s quite a bit of improvement to be found on the W14 for it to be a consistent performer. Lewis Hamilton has also openly expressed his desire to part ways with the W14 as soon as possible.
Toto Wolff has already announced that the team will shift to a completely new car design come 2024. Whether the change in design will bring about the much-needed change in fortune for the team remains to be seen.