Mercedes subdued the corner performance issue, which was a result of long wheelbase. Hamilton says the team has finally resolved the last straw of their Formula 1 car design.
The German team, seven times constructors world champion, opted for a different design approach. It opted for a longer wheelbase car.
This design philosophy has helped the team with improved downforce. The car area helped to manage the airflow. Unfortunately, it restricted its ability around corners like Red Bull.
Despite Mercedes’ trust in its design choice, its drivers have struggled around corners with rotating cars.
Hamilton, whose record tally with Schumacher, was surprised that other teams didn’t follow Mercedes’ footsteps.
“With last year’s car for example, we had the longest car,” Hamilton said.
“It’s definitely been a bit of a surprise to see that none of the other teams have gone to the longest car.
“We’ve been winning with the longest car since 2017, and [other teams] are so stuck in the way they do things, in that ‘we’re still going to keep our car shorter.’
“Being that it’s a long car, it’s obviously got great downforce, but it’s not as nimble as a shorter car.
“Last year our car was good through medium and high-speed corners, but was quite poor in low-speed corners. The car would not rotate as well as we’d like.
“We started this year in winter testing and the car had similar characteristics. I had some challenges that I put towards the team in terms of how we set the car up, which changed that.
“It’s difficult to say too much. But that difficulty we had last year with the car rotating, we don’t have that problem any more.”
Hamilton prefer a responsive car, which Mercedes struggled to provide in recent seasons.
“I’ve always preferred a more positive front end in the car, but there’s a limitation with these tyres,” he said.
“The front has a limitation, the rear has a limitation, grip wise.
“There’s saturation, there’s thermal deg and there’s only a certain amount you can do with the mechanical balance before it affects the other end. It’s like a see-saw.
“Last year our car was definitely very, very strong at the rear, and the car was generally driven by the rear end. The front was a lot more understeery last year.
“You struggled a lot more when you go over the tyre [grip] and no matter how much we put the mechanical rearwards it wouldn’t really fix it.”
