Tag Archives: Hamilton

It was no surprise when Mercedes set the pace in Monaco today, but all the signs are that Red Bull and Ferrari are a lot closer at a track where the power unit is less critical.

In FP1 Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were just 0.032s apart, although a disjointed FP2 meant that the times were not representative, with Hamilton half a second off Fernando Alonso, and Rosberg was only 20th.

“The car is still a work in progress but it felt really good out there today,” said Hamilton. “I had a good first session and was then really pleased to get those last few laps in the dry this afternoon which was a big plus. I’m feeling pretty set for Saturday, there is still some work to do but we have tomorrow to look into that and finish all our preparations for the weekend.”

“That was a very good day,” said Rosberg. “It seems that we are looking very quick here again, although our main competitors seems to be a little closer to us than in Barcelona. I still need to find my perfect set-up so there is still some work for us to do tomorrow to get ready for the weekend. The conditions weren’t great this afternoon so I didn’t take any risks as there was nothing to learn on the wet parts of the track.”

Meanwhile Paddy Lowe confirmed that there is still some work to be done.

“We had a straightforward first practice session when we chose to run an offset schedule to take ourselves out of the dominant traffic. That worked well as we got good clear runs on both sets of tyres, working on the set-up and dialling the car into the track. P2 was obviously wet and only dried up enough to do some useful running in the final half hour.

“This meant we weren’t able to do all our homework on tyre wear and long-run performance, but we were at least able to do a run on the option tyre, to give the drivers a feel for the car in what will be the tyre of choice in qualifying. Overall, the car was working well today and the drivers’ feedback was positive, but there is still more work needed to best prepare for qualifying on Saturday.”

Lewis Hamilton finally eased into the lead of the 2014 World Championship with his fourth straight victory of the season in Spain.

Hamilton didn’t have it easy, as he had to work hard to stay clear of Nico Rosberg in the closing laps, when the latter was on the more competitive medium tyre and Lewis was on the hard. He also wasn’t entirely happy with the balance of his car, which led to some terse radio traffic with his engineer.

“I did have the same problems as I had yesterday,” said Hamilton. “It was very strange because Friday P2 was excellent. The car was really good. As for degradation I was very very fast and I stopped my run with 18 laps or something like that, but if I just brought my pace down a little bit I probably could have eked it out even longer. Those changes just transformed the car and today, I was just not able to attack the corners due to snap oversteer, and that’s generally where Nico was catching me, through those entries of corners.”

Despite his run of success Hamilton is keeping a lid on expectations.

“At the rate the team’s going, we’re looking strong for at least a few more races. It’s by no means easy for me because I’ve still got a massive challenge with Nico. But, I mean, I could never had imagined winning these four races but it’s still so close, long, long way to go and, just as I was saying earlier, I’ve got a bit more time to find in this car, so going to work on it.”

Regarding what Mercedes has done right, he said: “There is no secret really, it’s just been hard work and really constructive work. Often when you’re working towards something, sometimes you stumble and fall and then you have to build it again and the team has just been building and building, building and not really having many times when they’re falling. It’s quite remarkable, the actual car itself, the downforce is very good, I’m sure very very close with the Red Bulls and then with the engine, it’s the best engine Mercedes have made.”

He also made some interesting comments on how this year’s car is more tailored to his requirements than the previous model.

“It’s a lengthy process. Obviously last year. when you request something to be changed, it takes some time, because obviously you don’t want to take away their focus from the most important things which is getting downforce. I think it’s just taken some time. I think Michael required had a different driving style to me. He required different things, different seating position, different set-up. I guess Nico and Michael both kind of gelled and went in one direction with the balance.

“And then as I’ve come along, mine is slightly different, and I guess we’ve then created a hybrid: Nico’s come halfway, I’ve come halfway, so we now require the same things from the car. But last year it was maybe a little bit different and so over the time just really, for the engineers to get to know what I require from a car and I think really working on being comfortable with the engineers as well, new engineers, it takes a while to build those relationships and that’s probably been a key strength to this year.”

Lewis Hamilton ended Friday in Malaysia in fourth place, with a best lap some 0.142s off pacesetter Nico Rosberg. The Mercedes driver was also been eclipsed by Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.

Like his team mate, Hamilton had concerns about the tyres.

“We were just working to understand the tyres, which are very, very hot,” he said. “And also just making sure that the balance is right, so you can go as long as possible.

“It’s the same as every time we come here, so it’s to be expected. It’s too hot for the tyres, the tyres aren’t working very well in these conditions. Even though we’ve got the hard tyre and the medium here, the tyres do not feel great, but it’s the same for everyone.”

Told that team mate Nico Rosberg didn’t seem happy with his day, Lewis said: “We got through practice and he’s at the front, so it’s kinda weird that he wouldn’t be satisfied with that. Balance wise we are still a little bit away from where we want to be.”

Meanwhile Lewis wasn’t interested in speculating about the current status quo.

“I don’t have a guess, I’m not really focussed on anyone else, I’m just focussed on my side trying to make sure the car is comfortable beneath me. Hopefully it will go the distance.”