Concern rumbles on for Hamilton: 'There's lots of question marks on it'
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton has revealed Mercedes still don't have a complete answer about their floor upgrade. The seven-time World Champion explained his gut feeling over the performance dip that has seen Mercedes go from winning races to struggling to compete for the podium places in recent weeks.
Mercedes added a new floor in Belgium but took it off for the meaningful sessions on Saturday and Sunday. It turned out to be their best on-track result for some time, with a one-two finish across the line. Russell was disqualified, but they kept the winning trophy because of Hamilton's position.
The floor reappeared after the summer break. In the first free practice at Zandvoort, they ran a split session with the new floor on one car and the old on the other car to get some comparison data. Mercedes opted to run with the new floor for the rest of the weekend as previously planned. Hamilton failed to escape Q2, and Russell dropped backwards in the race. This has left the technical team scratching their heads, and Hamilton reveals the team still has question marks.
What does Hamilton think the problem is?
"I think there's lots of question marks. We're just trying to understand it. There could be a number of things. It could be track dependent, it could be the upgrade. My guts tell me it's probably the upgrade, but it’s hard to see the different between the two. We are going try this weekend to go back on some of it and see whether or not we can spot it," Hamilton told GPblog and others in Baku.
"There's a lot of work going on just to analyse it, because it really gives the team a direction of where they're going in development. Not only this car, but for the next year as well," Hamilton added. The Brit will be moving to Ferrari for the 2025 Formula 1 season.
Hamilton's teammate, George Russell, demonstrated less concern when he was asked about Hamilton's remarks. He put Mercedes' results situation in context. "Formula One's more competitive than we've seen it for 10 years maybe in terms of the number of drivers and teams who can compete for the good results. Last year, if we were two tenths off the pace you'd finish in the same position, or if you overachieve by a tenth or two, you'd probably also finish in the same position," Russell explained.
"We've had two weekends where we have dipped in form slightly. Potentially not quite nailed a number of things but it could have easily swung a different direction. I started third last week, was in third in Zandvoort, and if the race had panned out very slightly differently we could have potentially ended up on the podium. Then we wouldn't be talking about this dip in performance. So I think it just goes to show unless you nail your weekends, you'll be sort of punished for it."
Mercedes will compete in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix this weekend. They haven't won in Baku since 2019.