Tag Archives: Lewis Hamilton

July 24, 2024 · 8:59 pm

Temperatures are key to Mercedes W15 form, says Russell

The Mercedes W15 doesn’t like hotter conditions

George Russell says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team has to understand how fluctuating temperatures impact the form of the W15.

Russell recovered to eighth in Hungary after starting 17th following a miscommunication in Q1 that saw him miss the dry window at the end of the session.

Team mate Lewis Hamilton secured third after a tussle with Max Verstappen, although he couldn’t match the pace of the McLarens ahead.

At one stage in the race Russell asked if a one-stop strategy was possible, although in the end he stuck with two stops.

“That hard tyre was feeling pretty rubbish, to be honest,” he said when asked by this writer about his race. “I think that compromised us slightly having the two hards, but I’d say as a team, this was probably our least competitive race weekend.

“Obviously Lewis got on the podium. It’s five podiums in a row for us now as a team. So we’ll take the positives from that.

“But I think we just need to understand there seems to be a fluctuation in our performance based on temperature. We need to understand that.”

Regarding the team’s current form he added: “Without doubt, we’re ahead of Ferrari. I think we’re not a million miles away from Red Bull, but as I said, in these five races, we’ve been clearly the quickest in two, and we’ve been second or third fastest in the other three.

“So maybe it’s just the natural fluctuations through a season, but there definitely seems to be some correlation with temperature.”

Russell admitted that he didn’t expect to lose out to Sergio Perez, who started a place ahead after a crash in Q1.

“His pace was surprisingly good to be honest,” he said of the Mexican. “I think following his recent form, I don’t think we were expecting to be in a fight with him, but I think his pace was almost in line with Max’s pace today.

“So P7/P8, the damage was done yesterday. That’s how it should be in the sport. You make a mistake, you get punished.”

Regarding the debrief on the qualifying debacle he added: “We all took responsibility and understood what we could have done better. Ultimately, it all came down to communication.

“Probably, between us all, we probably made three errors in the course of that one session, and we just only need to avoid one of those errors, and we would comfortably gone through. It was all down to comms. So yeah, one to learn for the future.”

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July 2, 2024 · 3:20 pm

Wolff: Hamilton has “reason to be angry” after floor damage spoils race

Hamilton had a difficult race in Austria but still salvaged fourth place

Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff says Lewis Hamilton has “all reason to be angry” after a frustrating weekend in Austria.

Hamilton suffered a damaged floor early in the race and could not match the pace of team mate George Russell.

Having passed Carlos Sainz on the first lap Hamilton was obliged to give the position back for going off-track in order to avoid a penalty.

He ran fifth for much of the race but the floor damage on the right-hand side – which the team believes was due to striking the kerbs at Turn 8 – compromised his pace, and left him complaining about understeer.

He also picked up a five-second penalty for missing the pit entry white line when he had a snap of oversteer and lost a place to Oscar Piastri.

The collision at the front of the field between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris that handed the win to George Russell also promoted him to fourth.

After the race Hamilton congratulated the team but downplayed the improvement in the form of the W15.

“I mean, from my side, it’s not feeling massively different,” he said. “But George, you can see he’s doing really well, he’s won a Grand Prix already. So that’s huge for everyone in the team, and a huge boost for everyone.”

Regarding the damage he said.: “I’m not really quite sure. I think Turn 1 a bit of damage, and then the floor was just falling apart. I don’t know when I got the damage,”

Wolff admitted that it had been a difficult race for Hamilton.

“It was one of these bad days, I think,” said the Austrian when I asked about Hamilton’s afternoon.

“A pretty decent start, and then Turn 1, lap one, giving the position back was a harsh thing, but it was pretty clear that we will be getting a 10-second penalty for not doing it.

“And it started a spiral. He pushed it very hard on the entry, you can see how much he pushed and lost the rear end, and obviously the next penalty came about.

“On top of that, we had floor damage because of the kerb ride, which I guess most people had, but his was extensive. It was two and a half tenths in parts that broke off on the on the car. So all reason to be angry about it, or upset about it.”

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June 12, 2024 · 2:22 pm

Alonso: Montreal a “lonely race” after early Hamilton fight

Alonso’s run to sixth in Montreal was his best result since Suzuka in April

Fernando Alonso says that the Formula 1 Canadian GP became a “lonely race” for him after he lost his early battle to keep Lewis Hamilton behind.

From sixth on the grid Alonso got ahead of Daniel Ricciardo at the start, and he then held off former McLaren team mate Hamilton in wet early stages.

The Mercedes driver got past at the first stops, and thereafter Alonsi then ran sixth for the duration of the race, with Aston Martin team mate Lance Stroll backing him up in seventh place.

It was the Silverstone team’s best double finish of the season after a difficult recent run that included two finishes outside the points for the former World Champion.

“Definitely a little bit of a lonely race for us,” said Alonso. “Not much to do in front of us. They were a bit too fast, and not many threats behind.

“Yeah, a little bit of defending with Lewis, but definitely he was one of the fastest on track, so that was a matter of time that we would lose that decision.

“A difficult race to execute for everyone. The track was just two metres wide with the dry line, so you cannot put a tyre outside of that dry line. So all-in-all, I think we take the day, double points for the team, and we have to be happy.”

Alonso stressed that Aston Martin made the correct strategy choices.

“I think it the right calls,” he said. “I was a little bit concerned when we stopped at the first stop, because the track was dry and we did new inters because the forecast was predicting a little bit of rain, but that rain was not happening, and I was a little bit concerned that we made the wrong call.

“I think Charles [Leclerc] tried to go for the dries, but at the end of the day, we made it okay, and all the calls were okay.”

He added: “The race, I think for me, was one of the most difficult races for everyone, for the 20 drivers, not only for us.

“And I was amazed that nothing happened for many, many laps, no incident, nothing but because the conditions were extremely hard.”

Alonso believes that the Silverstone team is getting to grips with the AMR23, which proved better suited to Montreal than the previous venues in Imola and Monaco.

“Today, I think was the maximum,” he said. “I think we are understanding more and more about the car, and the packages that we introduced this year.

“Some of them they need a little bit of fine-tuning in terms of setup, in terms of maybe direction as well. I think the setup is obviously a crucial thing here in Montreal with all the kerb riding.”

An improving Mercedes team has made life harder for Aston Martin.

“They are better, for sure, they are close to podium positions in the last few events, also in Monaco they were very fast,” said Alonso.

“So yeah, they are making a step forward, but I think it’s down to us to really prove the car. We are a little bit slower sometimes than we were at the beginning of the year, and we understand now why, and we’re trying to be as competitive as possible, hopefully in a few races’ time.

“This is a very dynamic sport. You are constantly learning about the car and all the new packages that you introduce. You are also looking at other cars and other philosophies, and you are trying different things.

“And yeah, I think the last few months, they were very productive for us in terms of understanding the car. So I’m very comfortable.”

Regarding his upcoming home race in Spain he said: “On paper we were happier with Montreal than Barcelona. We think that this track was going to be better for us. Let’s see if we have a nice surprise.

“I know the team is working also very hard to bring some new things for Barcelona, hopefully. So yeah, it’s going to be a very interesting weekend. 

“Let’s see if we can score points again with both cars, which is obviously the thing we’re looking for at the moment.”

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June 12, 2024 · 10:40 am

Wolff: Mercedes “dreamt” about Montreal win but W15 not there yet

George Russell led the opening laps in Canada but had to settle for third

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says that the team “dreamt” about scoring its first win of the year in Canada but doesn’t yet have a good enough car to do so.

George Russell took pole and led the early wet laps of the race, but he eventually finished third, while team mate Lewis Hamilton climbed from seventh to fourth.

Wolff admitted that while it has improved of late the W15 still isn’t as competitive as it needs to be.

“Maybe for a few minutes we dreamt about it, but in reality, probably not,” he said when asked if the team had a winning car in Montreal.

“I think definitely since Imola we’ve taken the right steps and put parts on the car that were working, and that is something that we were struggling with in the past couple of years.

“And now, directionally, we seem to be adding performance every weekend, and we have new parts coming in Barcelona that should that help us. So I would very much hope that we can continue this positive trajectory.”

By way of caution he added: “I am always a bit worried, when you’re being carried away, that everything seems to fall into place, because this is a difficult sport. We’ve had this positive trajectory now since the last three races, and everything seems to be making much more sense. So the stopwatch will tell us.”

Russell and Hamilton both expressed their frustration after the flag, with the former apologising to the team for an “ugly race”.

However Wolff insisted that they should be satisfied with the results they achieved.

“I think when you finish third and fourth, where we have been coming from, then it’s a positive race,” he said.

“Three and four is much better than we had previously, what we had in the in the last few races. So that’s good.

“But I think both drivers saw that more was [possible], because we could have maybe gained a position or two, and that’s why there is a kind of negative sentiment that prevails.

“But if you would have given them third and fourth before the weekend, probably they would have taken it.”

Wolff downplayed the suggestion that the new front wing first seen in Monaco was key to the recent improvement.

“Sometimes when you bring a highly visible part, like a body work, this is pretty much the talk of what has changed the performance,” he said.

“The truth is we have, over the last three races, brought so many new parts, visible and invisible for the eye, that have contributed milliseconds to more performance.

“And I think this is where those marginal gains can have that positive effect. And that was just a huge effort of the factory. And so I think the wheel has started to get some real motion now.”

Expanding on the recent improvement he said: “There’s no such thing as the silver bullet in F1, and therefore it was a constant work of understanding what was wrong.

“And I know that everybody got tired by this answer, but you can’t reverse engineer the performance of the car and say we’re looking at the Red Bull and this is what we want our car to look like.

“You really need to work your way through the problems. And it didn’t seem to correlate between the tunnel and the track.

“And the car was difficult to drive, ride was not good, we had the bouncing or bottoming coming back and then we had we had a clear indication of what we were missing in the jigsaw. We put the piece in, and I think now it’s fine.”

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May 14, 2024 · 5:17 pm

Wolff: Mercedes W15 updates can’t be rushed

Toto Wolff says that further W15 updates are on the way – but they can’t be rushed

Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff is adamant that the team knows how to improve the difficult W15 and is waiting for parts to come through the system.

The team currently lies fourth in the World Championship having scored just 64 points thus far this season.

Early optimism about the potential of the W15 quickly evaporated, and as in 2022 and 2023 the team has faced a huge challenge as it attempts to improve a tricky car.

“I think we understand much more what is needed to get the car in a better space, because it’s so clear now what it does, and why we struggle, and where we struggle,” said Wolff.

“The design offices is all in, the production and operations are flat out, the race team has been doing a good job. So all of the factory is really sixth gear in order to bring stuff to the car that we believe can be very helpful.

“I think we know what we do, and in terms of what we’re bringing to the car, you can’t really rush it, because you’ve got to develop to the point where you say now it’s good to be released into production.

“And once that part comes, or once these bits come, they need to be solid. So this is a matter of many weeks.”

Wolff reiterated that low-speed performance remains a key weakness of the W15.

“I think the car is not bouncing anymore, which is good, it was really bad the last few years [in Miami],” he said.  “The car is very strong in high-speed, the ride has been better, although not on the level of the other ones.

“The car just doesn’t turn in low-speed, and you don’t want to have a car that is either good in low-speed or in high-speed, you need the two of them, and that’s why it points in points us in some of the right directions.

“It’s been a painful learning curve, and it’s still not satisfactory, but the situation is more encouraging now.”

Wolff noted that there was some good news in Miami, although he wasn’t happy with the overall outcome. 

“In terms of the positives for the team, we were quicker than [Sergio] Perez at the end on the same tyre, probably quicker than the bunch ahead, but they were on the hards, so you need to see that in a relative way. On the hard, we struggled a lot.

“I wasn’t happy on Friday at all and with the sprint race, and then we put in some solid work, very structured, for the Grand Prix qualifying, accepting that this is the base level at the moment, and then just carrying it over into the race.

“And finishing sixth and eighth is not something to be proud of. But it’s a step in the right direction.”

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May 8, 2024 · 5:34 pm

Russell: Mercedes can only target P5 “on a good day”

George Russell admits that his Mercedes Formula 1 team can currently only target P5 “on a good day” and is generally only the fourth best team in the field.

Russell finished the Miami GP in eighth place, losing out to the VCARB of Yuki Tsunoda, having complained about a lack of grip at various stages during the race.

His team mate Lewis Hamilton only fared a little better, earning sixth place after starting on the hard tyres.

“Something didn’t quite feel right with the car,” said Russell when asked about his race by this writer. “I just had no grip, no pace. I was slower than Yuki for the whole last stint. So just need to go and see what was going on.

“I don’t really know to be honest, it’s swings and roundabouts for us at the moment. On a good day we’re P5 and on a bad day we’re P8. Today was a bad day, and we finished P8.”

Russell insisted that Lando Norris’s victory indicated that teams can make progress through upgrades.

“McLaren qualified P17 and 18 12 months ago in Miami, and today they won,” he said. “So it shows what’s possible when you get things right. But right now we don’t have things right, and we need to make changes quick.”

Asked if there is some light at the end of the tunnel for Mercedes he said: “There’s definitely direction.

“And we do have a few things coming in the short term, but nothing that’s going to transform us into race winners right now.

“I think we have to accept that we are the fourth fastest team at the moment, the lap times don’t lie, the championship doesn’t lie. This is where we are.

“And as I said, I think we’re fighting for the P5 to P8 region, week-in, week-out now.”

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April 28, 2024 · 11:24 am

Wolff: Mercedes F1 team must focus on low-speed performance

Toto Wolff says that his Mercedes Formula 1 team has addressed the high-speed issues with the W15, and now has to focus on low-speed performance.

The team is currently lying a distant fourth in the World Championship behind Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, with drivers Lewis Hamilton and George Russell making clear their frustration at the poor form.

Wolff cited a solid performance over the Japanese GP weekend as evidence that the car is at least competitive at tracks with faster corners.

“I think we absolutely achieved that,” said Wolff. “In the high-speed we were super competitive also in Suzuka through the Esses, say and night to what we had before. The drivers were speaking about the best car they had so far in those last two and a half years. But then we really didn’t perform in the low-speed.

“So you’re gaining half a second in the high-speed, you’re losing half a second in the low-speed, and that the equation is back to zero. So that is something which we need to improve.

“We’re beyond the point of understanding, we just need to improve now, that is what it needs to come to. And we have all the facts on the table. We know what we tweaked in order to solve the high-speed, we know where the car was before, to be quick through the slow-speed.

“And now we just need to bolt the car together that does both of them. And as before, we’ve seen those moments of performance. But overall, we’re just not good enough at this stage.”

Wolff suggested that Mercedes was flattered last year by other teams underperforming, indicating that the competition is now consistently stronger.

“I think the cars were difficult all along these last two years,” he said. “The advantage that we had is that McLaren was not racing us for most of the, let’s say, first half of the season. So they weren’t that competitive.

“Ferrari wasn’t the as quick, and dropped the ball on several occasions. And that’s why we were a regular podium contender, and closest to Red Bull.

“Now that these teams have picked up the performance levels, this is a relative game, and suddenly what was good enough for third last year is just good enough for sixth. And that’s why it’s tough.

“The car is as difficult as it has been in the past, tricky for the drivers. When we discussed it George said it was the most tricky qualifying car that he’s had so far. So overall, in a way, same symptoms.”

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September 19, 2016 · 4:12 pm

Toto Wolff: “The best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen…”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says that Nico Rosberg’s drive to victory in Singapore was the best the German has produced so far.

Rosberg took pole, left Lewis Hamilton far behind in the race, and then held on to defeat a charging Daniel Ricciardo in the closing laps.

“I’ve known Nico since 2013 and that is the best Nico Rosberg I have ever seen throughout a weekend since then,” said Wolff.

“We have the tendency of saying that Lewis has an awesome pace, and this is what we have seen with Nico this weekend – he was just blindingly fast. He was sixth tenths quicker than P2 in qualifying in Singapore – something we are not used to seeing at all here.

“And in the same way he drove the race. He had a great start, controlled the pace and on the contrary, Lewis didn’t have a clean weekend, he was lacking laps in order to find the right set-up so he couldn’t really choose the direction and from then on went backwards.

“Spa wasn’t a real good opportunity for him because of the engine penalty and here it just started on the wrong foot. And he couldn’t recover. In Singapore if you are lacking laps in free practice and lacking direction on where to take the set-up, it is a vicious circle and confidence is key around Singapore and if your team mate gets out of the block in the way Nico did this weekend it becomes very difficult. Lewis is the first one to acknowledge that.

Regarding the change of momentum in the title battle he said: “We have the tendency of talking one up and the other one down. We have had this since three years, since the two of them have been fighting for the championship, you have seen those waves.

“I remember talking about Lewis’ momentum a couple of weeks ago and suddenly we have this mega Nico weekend, and in two weeks we will see if that changes or stays the same in Malaysia.”

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September 4, 2016 · 9:39 pm

Lewis Hamilton: “I’m told it wasn’t driver error…”

Lewis Hamilton says he was not responsible for his poor start in Monza, despite a radio message to the team during the race in which he accepted blame.

At the Mercedes post-race debrief Hamilton was told by his engineers that it wasn’t his fault, and that the clutch was responsible.

“I’m told it wasn’t driver error, I’m told it wasn’t anyone’s error,” he said. “We continue to have an inconsistency with our clutch. You’ve seen it with Nico in Hockenheim. It’s bit me quite a lot this year. I was told the procedure was done exactly how I was supposed to do it, but unfortunately we just over delivery of torque, and the wheels were just spinning from the get-go.”

Hamilton said the team has worked extensively on the clutch this season.

“Of course, we never stop improving and learning. Today we would have learned again. But yeah, this year has been a harder year for us with out clutch. They’ll be working very hard. It’s not a quick fix, something you can change for the next race. We have made improvements, so we have seen more consistent, better starts, but we are still caught out by the random variation that we have from one weekend to the other. We do practice starts all weekend, and they’re varying a little bit, and then we get a drastic variation on the grip.

“As I said you’ve seen it with Nico, you’ve seen it with me, quite a few times. It is something that we need to work on. I can assure you on Tuesday [in the factory] that’s the only thing we’ll be talking about, because everything else we’re doing really well. So we’ll be trying to work and give as much information, learn as much as we can, if there’s any more, to try and make sure in the next six or seven races… We’re not struggling with pole positions, it’s just getting off the line.”

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September 2, 2016 · 12:26 pm

Lewis Hamilton: “Hopefully now I’ll get to fight…”

Lewis Hamilton has played down the significance of his recovery to third place at Spa, and insists that the result didn’t give him any kind of psychological boost over Nico Rosberg by getting such a good finish from 21st on the grid.

However he admits it was good to get the grid penalties behind him, and that he is now free to race Rosberg on equal terms this weekend.

“It was obviously an important race for me, and I got what I needed from it, and more,” said Hamilton. “It’s not done anything psychologically, it’s been a positive, and I’ll move on. The penalties are done, the free weekend kind of thing for the opponent is past, and hopefully I can put into action… I mean free from battle. Hopefully now I’ll get to fight, and it’s a race from here.”

Hamilton said that having a stock of fresh engines did not give him a particular advantage compared to earlier in the season, even though he was mindful of engine mileage before the summer break.

“Honestly I don’t feel any different now to what I did in Hungary. I guess perhaps subconsciously in Hungary I never knew if the engine was going to make it. But that’s still a question today, you hope with fresh engines that you are in a good position, but all sorts of things have happened. I had fresh engines earlier on in the season, so we’re not really in a different position except I’m hopefully not at risk of any particular penalties. The engine’s upgraded for reliability, so we should be in a good position. Now I can hopefully focus on getting my head down and getting back to the way I was driving before the break.”

Hamilton insists he is not worried about the possibility of Rosberg being able to to take a upgraded engine in the coming weeks.

“I’m happy with the phase that we have, I’m happy to run that for the rest of the year, and if there’s an upgrade I’m not bothered to take it. I can win with the ones I have. Usually upgrades are reliability, and if they are, it’s often small steps. That I’m not concerned about.”

Meanwhile he declined to talk about the issue of high tyre pressure at Monza, having been critical at Spa about the impact on Mercedes.

“Unfortunately I’ve decided to take a sabbatical from talking about tyres! There seem to be some emotional people about it, so unfortunately I won’t be able to answer too much more about it. If the weather’s the same as the last race – we don’t have any high speed corners – but I’m told it may continue. Honestly I have no idea at the moment.”

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