Lewis Hamilton describes Mercedes as “undriveable” and a “disaster” following Canadian Grand Prix practice sessions

Mercedes experimented with the ground in Canada when Hamilton finished more than a second behind Max Verstappen in the second practice session; Watch Practice 3 live on Sky Sports F1 at 18:00 on Saturday, with qualifying from 21:00

Lewis Hamilton described his car as “a disaster” as he conceded Mercedes were unlikely to make any improvements to its early-season performance for the remainder of the year.

The seven-time world champion, who is 88 points behind Max Verstappen, leader of the Drivers’ Championship after eight races in 2022, was only 13th on the timesheets in practice two at the Canadian Grand Prix as his Mercedes continued to suffer from the porpoise , who has plagued her campaign.

Hamilton, who described his car as “undrivable” and “so bad” over team radio ahead of his post-race interview SkySports F1struggled with an experimental ground set-up on Friday as he set a best lap time that was more than a second slower than the front runners.

And he was despondent at the team’s hopes of making progress this year.

“Nothing we’re doing on this car seems to be working in general,” he said Sky Sports. “We try different setups. Me and George have ridden a lot of different setups in this P2 just to see if one way works and one way doesn’t.

“I’ll wait to hear how it feels for him, but for me it was a disaster. It’s like the car is getting worse and worse, it’s getting unhappier the more we work on it.

“We will keep working on it. It is what it is. I think this is the car of the year.

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George Russell was not impressed with the performance of his Mercedes

Jumping the Mercedes left Hamilton with significant discomfort in Azerbaijan last week, but he insisted he had taken precautions to ensure he was feeling well ahead of Friday’s sessions.

However, he doesn’t think the car can compete with Red Bull and Ferrari for the remainder of the weekend at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

“One touch of the curb and the thing flies, it’s so stiff,” he added.

“Here you have to be able to use the curbs, so it’s very difficult. It’s not the Montreal that I know, that I’m used to, and that I’ve experienced throughout my career. It’s the worst I’ve ever felt in a car here.

“I hope we can try to make some changes overnight but it’s the basics of the car. It is what it is and it’s going to be a struggle.

“It’s a monumental struggle all the time to keep it off the wall. When jumping, the car leaves the ground a lot, and when it lands, it grabs and goes in different directions.

“You’re just trying to catch a car that jumps, hops and grabs. It’s tough. It just keeps you going and there were some big hits today. We lifted the car and it doesn’t make a difference.”

“We tried many, many things and ticked them all off. These don’t work, so we’ll have to find something else.

“We’re a long way from that, but that’s to be expected with this car.”

Brundle: They try almost random setups

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James Allison, Mercedes Chief Technical Officer, admits the team didn’t expect to suffer so much from porpoises this season

Mercedes Chief Technical Officer James Allison is in Montreal this week and Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle believes it is a sign the team is getting desperate in its quest for improved performance.

But he feels they’re running out of options as the team becomes more experimental in their approach.

“That was a very important thing Lewis said in terms of ‘this is the car we have,'” Brundle said.

“It’s starting to look like they can’t sort out this 2022 Mercedes; it’s too much of a knife edge of a setup. You basically have to screw it to the floor.

“Lewis more or less admits that they have to make the best of this car.

“We don’t see James Allison on the ground that often…if they can’t find a solution, no one can with the resources they have.

“We know how brilliant this team is – the minds, the money, the facilities and the data – and they just can’t dial in and solve the problems.

“It sounds like they’re trying almost random settings. I walk this path and you walk this path. Let’s see if we can find a magic solution there somewhere.”