"I’ve mentioned here before that one of my favourite quotes was by boxer Jack Dempsey, who once defined a champion as “somebody who gets up when they can’t.” I’m sure that Tyson Fury would be well able to explain exactly what that means.
And this season, we are watching Lewis having to do just that, with a car that is difficult and uncomfortable to drive. I’m not surprised that there are some within the F1 paddock who believe that he was ‘putting it on’ on Sunday night as he struggled to get out of his Mercedes after a strong drive to fourth place.
We’re all cynics to greater or lesser degrees, and you tend to pick and choose those whose words you tend to believe, and those whose you regard with, let’s say, a greater degree of caution. There have been champions in the past who liked to ham it up, and stress how hard it had all been, but I’ve never seen Lewis as one of them, nor as one who might act in certain ways for political gain."
(https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/a...hG5V4XELR.html)
I genuinely think that HAM suffers intense back pains from porpoising. IMHO no exaggeration/faking. Sufficient footage available showing that his body takes a serious beating on long straights with the W13. Same goes for RUS, though whose younger body seems to better cope with the discomfort (but who also indicated experiencing discomfort).
However, if any exaggeration of suffering would be involved for whatever reason (several competitors including his team mate RUS regularly outperforming HAM this 2022 season or Mercedes trying to induce FIA to change rules) it would be unsportsmanlike.