Lewis Hamilton likened his Mercedes team's struggles in 2022 to dealing with "a ghost in the car".
It has largely been a year to forget for the Silver Arrows. So used to dominating the Formula 1 world in recent seasons, they began 2022 with a car far less competitive than they would have liked and spent much of the rest of the year playing catch-up.
The W13 was a capable performer when in the right setup window, but as the season wore on it became more and more clear that window was tiny. Unless the team absolutely nailed the setup of the cars for each race weekend, Hamilton and George Russell were usually left to simply try to score as many points as possible.
Throughout the season there were flashes of optimism for Mercedes, but they were often met with a reality check soon afterwards. Hamilton referenced that when he looked back on the season and likened it to having their progress thwarted by a paranormal being.
"The first big step was Barcelona, that was our first hint of there being more potential in the car," said the seven-time world champion when asked about when he first felt his team's fortunes were going to improve this season.
"It turned out to be a bit of a false positive; the car was good there but then the races afterward were difficult. It was like a ghost was in the car and it kept coming back. But then there was France and that felt like a good step with our first double podium of the season. And then there was Austin, too, with the update we had working well."
It ended up being the first season of Hamilton's F1 career in which he did not win a race. And for his team, the Brit believes it was the most difficult campaign Mercedes have experienced in his time there.
"If you look back at the team's entire history, it was here a long time before Toto [Wolff] and I joined and they had some really difficult years," Hamilton added. "Some of the people have been here for over 20 years and really been through the thick of it.
"I would say for our current team, in terms of the last 10 years, this has been the toughest year for everyone along with the most strengthening. There has been so much resistance, so much we have been up against, and I am thankful that we have.
"There are many people working here, along with many new people in the team, and this experience has been good for them, too. When we win, there is a different gratitude now because it happened so often before."
