Hamilton after disappointing qualifying: 'Working on upgrades'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton finished ahead of his teammate George Russell in qualifying for the first time this season. The Briton finished fifth in Baku, while Russell was already eliminated in Q2. According to the seven-time world champion, his team Mercedes is giving everything but there is no more speed in the W14.
In the first three race weekends, Hamilton struggled badly in qualifying. Indeed, Russell was even faster each time than the man with more than 100 pole positions. This weekend the roles were reversed, but Hamilton also indicates there was no more speed in the W14.
No more speed in W14
In Australia, Mercedes was still clearly the second team and was reasonably close to Red Bull Racing, but in Baku things were completely different. Hamilton eventually finished fifth in qualifying with almost a second behind number one Charles Leclerc.
"We can't make any changes to the car, so this is the pace that we have, so I might get a bit more out of the car tomorrow if we can do studying tonight. But this is definitely a good position to start for Sunday," Hamilton said via Mercedes channels.
'Working on upgrades'
After the impressive performance in Australia, the W14 is much less competitive in Baku. Many teams have taken upgrades to Azerbaijan, the seven-time world champion says Mercedes has not. That could explain Mercedes' slump.
"This is obviously not the position we want as a team, we exist to win. But everyone has that winning mindset and everyone is working as hard as they can. We have not had an upgrade this weekend, but we are working towards one that will probably put us closer to the battle here."