Lewis Hamilton showed great pace on Friday in Monaco, as the British driver was quickly able to find the limits and after a P1 finish in FP1, he once again finished second only behind Charles Leclerc in FP2. However, the Briton was less optimistic ahead of the weekend in the principality.
In the Monaco paddock, where GPblog is present, Hamilton was presented a question with two options: Will it be easier to learn Italian before he completes his move to Ferrari, or to get a podium in 2024. "Neither. I think learning Italian is going to be the hardest, probably. At the moment, getting to the podium probably is the less likely one."
While slow speed corners seemed to be less challenging for Mercedes this season, the seven-time world champion underlined that was not always the case in 2024. "It's not actually really the case, I would say. If you look at the Suzuka, we were very slow in the slow speed. If you look at the Jeddah, we were fast in the slow speed and terrible in the high speed. I think we should be a little better here. The window is starting to open in terms of performance between high and low, so I'm really hoping that we've got it in a bit of a sweetspot. We weren't that far off in qualifying last year, actually, with a much worse car."
So far, Mercedes seem to have found that sweetspot this weekend in Monaco, as Hamilton topped FP1, and then only finished behind a highly-praised Charles Leclerc by 0.188 seconds.
