F1 News
Lewis Hamilton positive about 2023 F1 season with Mercedes
- GPblog.com
Lewis Hamilton didn't make it a secret of being happy to say goodbye to the W14 in recent months. With his Mercedes, the Briton failed to win a race for the second season in a row, although the German team did finish second in the constructors' championship. Yet negativity prevailed at Mercedes in 2023. So was there nothing positive at all in Hamilton's eyes?
Hamilton, in Abu Dhabi, was asked by the media (including GPblog) for some of the positives from the 2023 season, and the former world champion manages to think of a few. "Yeah, there's been a few. I think getting pole position in Budapest, we didn't think that was going to be possible when I first drove the car this year," Hamilton mentioned.
Mercedes almost won in America
He continued: "The upgrade that we saw in Austin and the fact that given a couple more laps, we may have been in shooting range for a win. Just seeing that we are slowly morphing this car into a more competitive machine. It's got more and more enjoyable to drive. To be in a fine position where you're actually going forward rather than backwards has been positive."
And that needs to change, and so Hamilton repeats what he has said more often: "But it still fundamentally is not a winning car. And that's what we've got to change next year. So, the dream is to make sure that when we start in February next year, that it's not a replica of this year's car or feel exactly the same. But I'm pretty sure that's not going to be the case.