‘Something is wrong’ - Lewis Hamilton reveals insight into Mercedes’ F1 car balance struggles at British GP
Hamilton was 12th and 15th as both Mercedes drivers finished outside 🔯the top 10 in FP1 and FP2 on what was a t🐟ricky opening day of running for the German manufacturer at Silverstone.
Despi𝄹te bringing upgrades to their underperforming W14 chall🦋enger, Hamilton stressed the car is still “tough to drive”.
“Car wise, we’re battling the same thing most of the time,” the seven-time worꦏld champion 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 s𓂃ingle lap I didn’t feel any improvement between tyres, which shows that something is wrong. We’re missing something.
“On the long run it didn’t seeജm to be too ♏bad, so that’s a positive at least.”
Hamilton was more competitive during his long runs on soft tyre💫s but said “it didn’t feel particularly great” from the cockpit.
“It didn’t feel particularly great, if I’m being honest,” Hamilton said. “But it must have felt worse for others because they weren’t ꦫas quick or potentially had more deg.
“My l𓆉ast run was starti🍃ng to feel more consistent, 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 w🦩ay around and making compromises here and there. There’s such a fine edge on the baꦕlance and such a big balance window.
“It’s back and forth, it’s never just here an🎀d 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 replied: “No. Me and Georg😼e 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 coౠming to where you are but your 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 tonight and Mick [Schumac🌄her] 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 arouℱnd the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
