Hamilton: These rules have made life tough for everyone

Mercedes have mastered the F1 turbo-hybrid era that started in 2014, winning championship doubles up until 2020, while in 2021 they only took the constructors' championship while Max Verstappen beat Hamilton to the drivers' crown.

But the tables turned once the sport ushered in the current "ground effect" regulations back in 2022, as Mercedes failed miserably to produce a decent F1 car up to now, as they don't seem to have been able to get their heads around the tricky rules as their early cars in 2022 and 2023 suffered from bouncing and were miserably slow.

Mercedes have taken a different direction with their car philosophy in 2024, and while that has resulted in a slight improvement with their W15 challenger, the performance remained inconsistent.

George Russell won in Austria and finished first in Belgium but was disqualified with Hamilton, who also won in Silverstone, inheriting the win.

But after the summer break, the W15 seems to have dropped back down the order, a clear proof of how its performance fluctuates as Mercedes continue to struggle in understanding it with team boss Toto Wolff pointing out to tyre management as the key issue.

The Singapore Grand Prix was especially tough for Mercedes, where Russell finished fourth and Hamilton sixth, and when the latter was asked if the cars at his disposal were making his life difficult, he joked: "The last three years, yeah!"

But he then added of his W15: "No, this one’s definitely been better. The last two years, it made all of us in the team’s lives tough. I would say these rules have made life tough for everyone.

"Some weekends we arrive and we think we’re going to be better than we are and we’re not great, and then some weekends all of a sudden we’re there and win the race, and it lifts us up.

"It’s a bit like playing golf. You get one good hit, and it makes you continue, but all the rest of the shots are really bad! It’s that kind of experience.

"It can be so frustrating, but you still love it, and you still continue to go. You’ve got to keep pushing because you’re searching for that feeling again like we’ve had at Silverstone or Spa," Hamilton concluded.

Hamilton will still have to endure six more F1 weekends with his W15 before he leaves for Ferrari in 2025. He is currently sixth in the 2024 F1 drivers' championship with 174 points.