Russell sits fourth in the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 standings, two places above Hamilton, heading into the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 Mexico City Grand Prix and it has led to critics questioning the💟 seven-time world champion’s performance.

But he has explained the toll of early-season experimentation on a W13 car blighted by 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:porpoising issues.

"George is doing a great job," Hamilt🎶on told . "I don't♕ have any problems with it. There's no issues in the background with us.

"George, I would say, and his team, they don't experiment the same,꧒ obviously. But that's because I've been here for a long time, so I'm willing to take these risks.

"George, it's his first year with the team so he's come in and he's just doing his job to𓆉 the best of his🧔 ability.

“Very l♋ittle movement of set-up. I'm doing 🐎all the leg-work, back and forth here and there, different wings, all these different things. And I like that anyway.

"If we come into next year and we🦋 have a car that we are much happier with, then we can be more focused on not having to go crazy with set-ups. Then we can have a better bat🦄tle.

"If 🧸he finishes ahead at the end of the season, I don't really feel anything about it. We'🦋re not in the championship. We are fourth and sixth. Now, if it was first and second, it's different."

Hamilton has been forced to watch 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen rack up back-to-back championships, this season’s during the 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:F1 cost cap row.

But he has vowed that Mercedes will return to the title🔴ও picture in 2023.

"🃏[The W13ꦰ car is] like creeping up behind a horse,” he explained.

"You're trying to get as close as possiblꦜe. What's the breaking point before it kicks you in the face? And you know it's going to♓ hurt when it hits your face.

"That's one of the best ways I can sa🃏y what it's like when you're trying to lean on the car and it's snapping and unrecoverable. And this car, it's random."

Hamilton explained the behind-the-scenes conversations at Mercedes: "We satღ in February and we were all upbeat. They 🌄were all telling us we were going to have massive quick car.

"And I'm sure everyone who was working on it was so ⛄hyped with all the hard work they put in through the winter - it's such a gruelling time for everyone in the team; that's when they really crunch and out in the crazy hours.

"🐬To then find out the damn thing doesn't work, and we've got bouncing [porpoising], that was hard for everybody. Everyone was really struggling, I think.

"And we all went through our own process of how to deal with it. But I think surprisingly it's been a really powerful transformational time for us all. We've got stronger and tighter 𒁃as a team.

"I had a feeling when I first drove𝓡 the car. But you can never say never.✨ Maybe we would have fixed it by the first race. Who knows?

"I'd never had bouncing like that. I didn't expect the guys to take as long. They didn't expect it ⭕to take as long🐬 as it's taken them to understand what's causing the bouncing. They've had to create new tools, all these things we didn't have before.

"You just j🎐ust hold on to hope. And then the next upgrade comes and it doesn't work, and the next one comes and does💞n't work.

"Imagine pe🌄ople that are building those things and they are seeing performance in the wind tunnel but th🀅ey are not seeing it on the track. You just keep getting knocked back down.

"But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and we're still standing tall. It's not going to be easy to change the car into a leading car for next year but I think we have a much better underꦓstanding of why the car is the way it is.

"Literally, I have tried everything. I've triܫed eve෴ry setting you can possibly do. That's what I was doing at the beginning of the year.

"The whole idea of performing at your best and getting the best result each weekend, of course that would be nice, but I was really about problem solving: 'I will sacrifice this session or all the sessions to be able to find more data and information for you.' S𓂃o that when we go back to the factory they've got a better understanding of what's going on.' But it ultimately hindered some of the weekends.

"I have the big, deep conversations with people I've been with for 10 ye🌠ars. So, me and [Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes' engineering director] can have arguments, constructive arguments.”

• Hamilton on the ghosts o🌃f Abu ꦺDhabi: “A wrong decision from somebody…”