Lewis Hamilton expressed his frustration regarding the impact of bouncing on his qualifying session for the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, despite Mercedes making an overnight rear wing change to enhance his W15.
Hamilton’s discontent began on Thursday, prompting a switch to a larger wing for Friday’s session.
Although this adjustment provided the car with greater stability, it came at the expense of speed on the straights. Hamilton emphasized that the bouncing issue significantly impeded his performance, especially in the initial segment of the lap.
“It wasn’t a really good qualifying at all,” he stated.
“I really struggled with the car yesterday, and then FP3 I was really much happier with the car, with a slightly bigger wing, but I was losing two-tenths in the straight.
“But I gained some stability back, and I was I was much, much happier, and I thought I would carry that into qualifying.
“But unfortunately, the bouncing is still there. It makes it very, very, very difficult to push through that for a session. That’s why we were so slow in that first sector.”
Hamilton acknowledged that despite the bouncing characteristic, the W15 possesses greater potential than its predecessor.
He said; “I think if you took that away the car is really so much better than last year, in every area.”
“It’s just that it’s really causing us some real big trouble. In the second or third sector, we were a lot closer, and we’re able to be closer through some of all the rest of the corners, but just that first section – it’s the same as last year.”
Hamilton stated that he intends to adopt a “cool” approach during the race at a circuit renowned for its dramatic events and frequent safety car deployments.
“I mean, jeez, qualified ninth and eighth, so I’ve had a horrendous two qualifying sessions,” he continued. “I think tomorrow is just about being cool. And I’m just going to try and enjoy myself tomorrow.
“It is what it is, but we’re not fighting for the front, for the win. So try and bag as many points as I can tomorrow.”
Andrew Shovlin, the trackside engineering director at Mercedes, conceded that the W15 lacks competitiveness and acknowledged that the team will need to adopt an opportunistic strategy for the race.
“Our performance in the high-speed corners wasn’t good enough,” Shovlin said. “We improved the car slightly overnight, but we’ll need to make this better ahead of Suzuka and Melbourne.
“We don’t really know where everyone will stack up on long run pace tomorrow. [Max] Verstappen looked clear of the field, but it’s quite tight behind, and not many cars did runs that were long enough to get a clear read on degradation.
“It’s normally an incident-filled race here so opportunities may come to us tomorrow. We will look to take advantage of those, but today just wasn’t good enough.”
