‘Something is wrong’ - Lewis Hamilton reveals insight into Mercedes’ F1 car balance struggles at British GP
Hamilton was 12th and 15th as botღh Mercedes drivers finished outside the top 10 in FP1 and FP2 on what was a tricky opening day of running for the German manufacturer at Silverstone.
Despite bringing upgrades to their underperforming W14 challenger, Hamilton stressed the car is stillꦍ “tough to drive”.
“Car wise, we’re battling the same thing most of the time,” the seven-time world championꦕ said. “It’s a tough car to drive.
“No matter what we do to🎉 set-up, it continues to be a tough car to drive. On a single lap I didn’t feel any improvement between tyres, which shows that something is wrong. We’re missing something.
“On th🌟e long run iﷺt didn’t seem to be too bad, so that’s a positive at least.”
Hamilton was more competitive during his long runs on soft tyℱres but said “it didn’t feel particularly great” from the cockpit.
“It didn’t feel particularly great, if I’m being honest,” Hamilto♈n said. “But it must have felt worse for others because they weren’t as quick or potentiall💜y had more deg.
“My last run was starting to feel more co𝓡nsistent, for whatever reason. It might have been wind, it might have been balance, or me getting used to balance.
“This track is really about trying to weigh the scales the whole way around and ma🤡king compromises here and there. There’s such a𒅌 fine edge on the balance and such a big balance window.
“It’s back and forth, it’s never just here and you can just drive♍ it. It’s like one end to the other end of the spectrum, from braking to turn in, to mid, to the exit of every corner. So it’s a good battle.”
Asked if he knows how to get the balance in the right window, Hamilton replied𒐪: “No. Me and George were just talking and he’s one 🦹way, he’s over here with the set-up, I’m over here.
“He ꧃was like ‘I’m thinking of coming to where you are but y❀our lap time is then slow’ and I’m like ‘I was thinking of coming to where you are’.
“But we’ll try and work on it toni🦩ght and Mick [Schumacher] will do some work on the sim tonight. Hopefully we will come up with something for tomorrow.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reporting on the action fr𓄧om the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
