F1 News
Disheartened Hamilton has little hope for Sunday with Mercedes upgrades
While Mercedes could have a positive set of results right before the same break, with Lewis Hamilton winning two and George Russell winning another Grands Prix out of four events, the latest upgrade package brought first to COTA is yet to work well for the Germans. Hamilton commented on his team's current issues in Mexico City.
Lewis Hamilton finished in sixth position in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix, behind his teammate George Russell. The Briton currently runs with the upgraded package, something Russell cannot do after his crash in qualifying at the US Grand Prix a week before.
'Don't think upgraded package is quicker'
"FP3 felt decent. It felt like we were on the right track. so I decided not to make any changes. All we did was put the wing on and I was like, 'okay, let's leave it there'. There's not really a lot we could do in development, in setup changes to progress the car forwards, the performance is where it is. Then we got into qualifying and I had no rear, it's just like it flips on its head, it's a very strange thing with the car."
What can be worrying for Mercedes is that the seven-time world champion believes their previous package will work better during the Grand Prix. "But it'll be interesting to get a reading because obviously I'm on the upgraded car, it should be quicker, but I don't think it is."
He continued: "We definitely took a good step with the FP3, I thought at least in balance, but the actual car we were still six tenths off the cars ahead. We put the bigger wing on to get more downforce and it just went slow. Same as every single race I've had this year."
Revisiting what went wrong at the Circuit of the Americas during the Grand Prix, Hamilton added: "We just have three-wheeling and the ride height's moving 15mm up and down. When it does that, it s**** the bed basically."
Hamilton doesn't expect to challenge the cars ahead
The third row of the grid is made up of the two Mercedes cars in Mexico. Still, Hamilton does not expect to challenge the drivers starting from the Top 4 this Sunday. "We'll get lots of data tomorrow. I don't think we'll compete with the guys ahead. They're just too fast. So, we'll see how it goes. I just want to go to the end of the race, at least this time."
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