F1 News
Hamilton facing facts: 'This has to be different next year'
- Ludo van Denderen
One week is not the other. After having had a serious chance of victory in Singapore, Mercedes has so far failed to get there in Japan. More than a second Lewis Hamilton had to concede to Max Verstappen in Q3, teammate George Russell as much as 1.3 seconds. No doubt the German team felt worse about the margin to McLaren, which was half a second faster.
"It was obviously a bit of a surprise," Russell told Viaplay's, after being asked about the huge gap to McLaren. He continued: "but when we think about it rationally, it's no real surprise when we saw Silverstone how fast McLaren were in in that corner range. 200 to 230 kilometer hour corners, they're mega mega fast. That was no surprise and we always struggle on circuits that have high-end low speed corners so obviously a shame but it's where we are at the moment."
Hamilton sees weaknesses exposed
Lewis Hamilton is a pure winner. A warrior, always going for the very best. But as a seven-time world champion, he could not make a real fist against Max Verstappen in the Red Bull Racing car at the iconic Suzuka circuit. True, Hamilton was faster than his younger teammate, but spot seven is not that befitting of the Briton's stature and qualities.
Moreover, the difference with Verstappen was thus a second, which in today's Formula 1 is an eternity. "I mean it just highlights the true underlying concept that we have and and the deficit that we really have. This is an amazing circuit. It's the best test bench for an error balance, a car's balance from high, medium and low speed. This is the ultimate testing circuit and it shows that there is that gap there and we've got a lot of work to do to be able to try and close that up for next year" Hamilton said.