Hamilton reveals mystery that caused him to struggle in qualifying

F1 News

Hamilton on solving his qualifying struggles
28 June at 07:30
3
  • Matt Gretton
  • Editor-in-Chief

Ahead of the race in Austria, Lewis Hamilton has revealed what he has done to tackle his qualifying woes in 2024. Hamilton out-qualified his teammate George Russell last weekend for the first time since the Japanese Grand Prix in early April.

Hamilton walks into Austria with a spring in his step after the good qualifying result and his first podium of the 2024 Formula 1 season. Russell's dominance often left Hamilton feeling downbeat. After qualifying in Monaco, Hamilton even admitted to thinking he wouldn't qualify ahead of Russell for the remainder of 2024. Hamilton proved that statement false in Barcelona and he reveals how he managed to improve.

How Hamilton improved his qualifying performances

Mercedes upgrades improved the car in Canada and Spain, but the Brit still had to beat his teammate. "[I did] a huge amount of analysis. I requested a lot of information from the team on how we can improve where we're lacking," Hamilton explained to reporters, including GPblog, in Austria.

"It is simply with tyres. Just continuing to improve on our processes from session to session, but particularly once you get to qualifying, things do change a little bit. Car is obviously lighter, you're in DRS a lot more. Time will tell. I think we cracked something. Now let's just try and build on it," he explained.

Hamilton previously highlighted how he felt positive in the car during practice, but his performance dipped when pushing in qualifying. He put this down to how the car reacts differently when pushing the maximum.