Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Formula 1 driver, expects progress with his W15. He believes that finally the team understands why it lacked performance on track despite great speed during qualifying.
Finally, the British driver thinks he and the team have “cracked something”. He claims to have a breakthrough at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Earlier, he asserted that the W15 is performing at its max despite upgrade. The team had struggled to understand the issue because W15 perform quite well during qualifying. However, both drivers struggled to yield qualifying results in better point during the race.
The seven-times world champion had echoed his concerns regarding Mercedes car. His team mate George Russell shared the similar concerns, while having difficulty handling the car.
Recent podium at Spanish Grand Prix provided a great motivation to the team. The British driver believes that the issue persists with tyres rather than platform.
Hamilton expressed optimism about the depth of their understanding the issue. “There has been a huge amount of analysis, and requests of a lot of information from the team, on how we can improve where we are lacking,” he said ahead of the Austrian GP.
“It is simply with tyres, and so just continuing to improve on our processes from session to session.
“Typically, once we get to qualifying, things do change a little bit. The car is obviously lighter, you are in the DRS a lot more. Time will tell. But I think we cracked something. Now to try and build on it.”
Hamilton insists that the Mercedes requires to address aerodynamic compromises along with the tyres.
“The car aerodynamically, is more on a knife edge,” he said. “It’s not as easy to balance with the mechanical side and the aero balance from high to low speed. Getting that configuration is difficult.
“But tyre temp and also then how you do your out-laps is key, which every single team is trying to sort.
“Just look at the Ferraris in Montreal, who didn’t get out of Q2 for example. That could only be tyre temperature, as they have got a quick car and they won the race before that. So it just shows that it’s easy to not have the tyres working. It’s easy to overwork the tyres.
“They’re definitely more sensitive, I think, than any other season that I remember being in.”
