Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Formula 1 driver, believes that current car has nothing more to offer. He feels only an upgrade might be able to help him and his team-mate George Russell to compete with the front runners.
Seven-time champion maintains there is no performance left in the car. It only respond well in a particular setup and its unlikely that it will not change without upgrade.
Hamilton managed to win himself a position on the podium behind Max Verstappen and pole sitter Lando Norris. He finished 17.8 seconds behind the race winner at Spanish Grand Prix.
This marks the best result for Hamilton, who had struggled continuously this season. It also broke non-podium spell for the British driver, who failed to reach top three since 2023 Mexican Grand Prix.
“We’re slowly getting closer,” he told the press. “Last year, we were very fast here, so you have to take it with a pinch of salt, but obviously the last couple of races we’ve been relatively competitive.
“So, I think we have closed the gap a little bit, but we still have a good couple of tenths to try and find. We just have to have all hands on deck and keep pushing.”
The British world champion revealed that there have been no fine tuning. He claims W15 is at its besy despite new front wing and lighter floor. Hamilton added: “No, I think that’s the maximum it’s got at the moment.
“But we’re always fine-tuning it with subtle changes that we make. So, we are always fine-tuning it and we continue to tune it through the year.
“But we need to bolt some stuff on, some extra bits to be able to compete with these guys.”
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Initially, Hamilton dropped place but recovered to the position of starting grid. He discussed the inconsistent results of Mercedes and claim the W15 responds well only in a particular setuo.t
“Our pace is where we were, basically – third or fourth this weekend,” he said.
“But I think our car is generally quite peaky and that means that it’s often out of balance. It’s very rare that it’s in balance and it’s nice and smooth through a corner.
“So, set-up – I’ve obviously experimented a lot with set-up over the last couple of years, but the car doesn’t really like any of the set-ups but one.
“It’s slowly starting to become nicer to drive. And ultimately tyres. Tyres have been a huge issue for me.
“So, I think we got it half-decent this weekend. If I can make some improvements over the course of the next races, I think there’s more performance there.”
