Monaco F1 track the “bumpiest rollercoaster” ride

The seven-time world champion and his team-mate George Russell endured their share of difficulties around the streets of Monte Carlo on Friday, with their W13 experiencing some extreme bouncing.

Reflecting on his day, after ending up 12th in the second session, Hamilton said: “Firstly, it’s the bumpiest the track has ever been, it’s probably the bumpiest track I’ve ever driven.

“So that makes it one difficult, but then on two, just generally our car is quite…it bounces a lot. It’s different, it’s different bouncing to what we’ve experienced in the past. It’s just because it’s in the low speed also, so it’s not aero. I think it’s just the bumps on the track are making it worse.”

Hamilton said that the stiff setup characteristics of the 2022 cars was not making things easy for him, as team-mate Russell revealed that there were times when the car had its two front wheels off the ground.

“There are sections where both of the tyres are off the ground,” said Russell, who was sixth fastest in FP2. “At Turn 5, the front right is up in the air, and it is so stiff even the front left is popping up off the ground as well. There are points you are almost doing a wheelie because there are no front wheels on the ground.

“So it’s tricky. I don’t know what more we can do with car. We are doing everything we can to try and make it a bit easier for us and to give us a bit more confidence.

“But you know, the guys and gals are gonna work hard overnight and see what we can do for tomorrow.”

Hamilton added: “As I said, it’s different to when we were having bouncing before. It is bouncing, but it’s a different kind of feel. There are like 100 bumps on just one straight. So I don’t know how it is for the others, or whether or not they’re experiencing the same as us. But it’s the bumpiest roller coaster ride.”

Hamilton said the feel of the current generation of cars was a world away from how he…