Hamilton warns: 'Mercedes can't keep relying on that'

Mercedes have held their own this year thanks to reliability, perhaps the strongest point of the W13. However, Lewis Hamilton warns that his team cannot continue to rely on reliability if it is to secure podiums.

Despite Mercedes' disappointing performance in the 2022 Formula One season, the team managed to reach the podium 11 times, mostly helped by the adversity of Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. However, a victory was not yet in the cards for Hamilton or George Russell, as overall the team still falls short of the pace of the front-runners.

Although his team has now approached Ferrari to within thirty points, Hamilton warns that Mercedes cannot bet everything on reliability. "We're still lacking performance, which is a difficult thing because I think there's potential in this car, but we've had to depower it to stop it from bouncing," the Briton said in conversation with Viaplay.

He continued: "We've had really good reliability, but we can't forever rely on reliability being the thing that keeps us on the podium, so we really need performance." Hamilton is currently sixth in the championship, but is no longer much short of Russell and Carlos Sainz, to whom the gap is 12 and 10 points respectively.