Lewis Hamilton admits move from winning F1 races to midfield with Mercedes is 'difficult'

Lewis Hamilton says that toiling in the midfield in his struggling Mercedes Formula 1 car is ‘still racing’, but admits that he has found being unable to compete for race wins ‘difficult.’

The seven-time world champion had been aiming to bounce back from losing out on the 2021 world championship to Max Verstappen by challenging for the crown this year instead, but the lack of performance in Mercedes’ new car has prevented him from being able to do so.

F1 has returned to ground effect car designs this year for the first time since the 1980s, in an effort to allow cars to follow one another more closely and for drivers to race each other harder. So far, the changes seem to be having the desired effect, with Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen engaging in thrilling tactical tussles for the lead in the opening few races.

Mercedes’, though, have struggled with the transition to the new technical generation and their car cannot compete with frontrunners Ferrari and Red Bull.

The W13 is slower through the corners than its rivals and suffers from intense porpoising, which is term given to the phenomenon whereby the car bounces up and down violently at high speeds on long straights, because the floor of the car is shuttling air back and forth with little control.

Hamilton’s lowest ebb so far this season came at Imola, when he ruled himself out of this year’s title race after finishing a dreadful 13th, unable to pass the AlphaTauri and Aston Martin cars in front of him because of a sheer lack of pace in the car.

After finishing sixth at the inaugural Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton says that battling in the midfield is an ‘experience’, but that is finding the change ‘difficult.’

‘It’s still racing, just a different