Marko: Maybe Hamilton’s thinking ‘he should have stopped’

Helmut Marko has suggested Lewis Hamilton may be thinking he should have retired at the end of last season given his struggles with the Mercedes W13.

Hamilton has been the main casualty in terms of performance from a ‘porpoising’ car that indicates Mercedes have failed to master Formula 1’s new regulations.

Although there are still 19 more races for the eight-time consecutive Constructors’ champions to turn around their ailing fortunes, they have been well off Ferrari and Red Bull’s pace so far.

And while George Russell, who only joined Mercedes this season, has yet to finish outside the top five, Hamilton is already 21 points behind his team-mate after coming home 13th in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

It is all a far cry both from the 37-year-old Briton’s era of dominance, in which he equalled Michael Schumacher’s record of seven Drivers’ titles, and even last year when he just missed out on an eighth in controversial circumstances to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

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At Imola, Hamilton was lapped by Verstappen purely down to the performance of their cars as the Dutchman went on to win – and then received an apology over the team radio from team principal Toto Wolff for being given an “undriveable” car.

“We will come out of this.”

pic.twitter.com/V0qymngGym

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 25, 2022

Red Bull advisor Marko was asked in an interview with Sky Sports News what Hamilton would be thinking in his