Hamilton concerned about key aspect: 'That's not been ideal'

Mercedes was in good form going into the summer break. The Brit ended his near-1,000-day win drought in Formula 1 with P1 at Silverstone and then got a second victory (partly thanks to his teammate's disqualification) a few weeks later in Belgium. However, since Formula 1 returned, Mercedes has fallen behind Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.

Is Hamilton confident Mercedes will improve?

Hamilton has just six race weekends left at Mercedes, including the upcoming United States Grand Prix. Toto Wolff spoke about the team being eager to give Hamilton a successful farewell, and they will do so with upgrades. Mercedes changed the floor in Belgium but took it off for the meaningful sessions. The team were not sure what was going on but Hamilton reports answers have now been found.

"Normally, they're [the team] on the move all the time, so they've definitely had time to analyse, think of where we've gone wrong, but also we've been a bit out of sequence to the others, the others have bought upgrades at times we haven't," Hamilton said in the paddock at COTA.

"Ultimately [we] lost our way a little bit with the setup. We tried to get as much from this car that's slowly deteriorating, the old floor for example. So I think we understand where we've veered off, and I'm hoping this weekend we can start back on the better balance," he added.

The sprint format will be used in Austin, so teams only get one hour of practice. Hamilton ended up getting disqualified due to an excessively worn plank in Austin last season. Hamilton knows it won't be easy to hit the ground running.

"Pretty impossible unless you're just lucky and it works from the get-go. I think last year we came here and I didn't have to change much and the balance was sweet from the get-go, but nine and a half times out of ten that's not the case. It's difficult but everyone's in the same boat that puts a lot of pressure, like a lot focus on the simulation and say simulations haven't been ideal in the past year or so. We have definitely made more than enough mistakes and hopefully we are able to start on a better platform," he concluded.