Lewis Hamilton identifies key upgrade change behind Mercedes W15 improvement
Lewis Hamilton is in his final season as a Mercedes driver
Lewis Hamilton has revealed that “incremental steps” with Mercedes W15 upgrades have contributed to the team’s improved performance in the F1 2024 season.
Mercedes produced their best display of F1 2024 at the last race in Canada, where Hamilton‘s team-mate George Russell claimed the team’s first podium finish of the season after setting pole position.
Lewis Hamilton reveals key to Mercedes W15 rise
Additional reporting by Sam Cooper
The car’s improved pace continued on Friday at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, where Hamilton set the pace in FP2 with a lap 0.022 seconds faster than Carlos Sainz’s heavily upgraded Ferrari.
Hamilton, who recorded his best result of the season with fourth place in Montreal, revealed that the W15 felt “really great” in practice – and is hopeful of “holding on to” Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren as the weekend develops.
He told Formula 1: “P1 was so-so.
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“I went in a direction with the car, we learned quite a lot in that session. And then in P2 it definitely felt quite a bit better.
“I think we made some good changes and the car’s feeling really great today. The track is very hot, very tough for the tyres, especially on the long run.
“It doesn’t feel like we’re too far off. I wouldn’t really take too much notice of lap times necessarily.
“I think the car is definitely in a better place. I think we’ve got some work to do to improve it overnight and to see if we can hold on to the Red Bulls and Ferraris and McLarens.”
Put to him that Mercedes are now building momentum in their efforts to return to the front of the field, Hamilton remarked that the team have “a much better understanding” of where to take the car’s development.
And he revealed that the team are now placing an emphasis on making consistent “incremental steps” with the W15 rather than bringing “big chunks here and there.”
He explained: “We definitely are working.
“Everyone at the factory has been working so hard, as they are every year, but I think having more of a north star we’ve got a much better understanding of where we want to go with the car and the incremental steps that they’ve been taking.
“Everyone’s been working so hard with building components and bringing them consistently rather than just big chunks here and there and for that I’m really grateful.
“And you’re starting to see that in how comfortable we are as drivers in the car.”
Hamilton’s comments come after Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team boss, commented that the Silver Arrows have brought upgrades to every race since last month’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with “marginal gains” crucial to the team’s recent upturn in pace.
He told media including PlanetF1.com: “Since Imola, we’ve brought upgrades to every single race, smaller and bigger ones.
“There’s the odd thing that’s visible where people talk about and the other things that are not, but it was aero and it was mechanical.
“And I would say that on the mechanical side, we’ve seen that the car is very good over bumps and kerbs. The ride is very smooth.
“And I would say that all of these marginal gains have contributed to better lap times.”
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