Lewis Hamilton openly admits that his exceptional driving prowess isn’t sufficient to bridge the performance gap with Red Bull in the current Mercedes Formula 1 car.
While Hamilton’s skill behind the wheel is undeniable, the team has recognized the need for further improvements to remain competitive.
Earlier in the season, the Mercedes team introduced significant updates to their car concept, implementing a new package during the Monaco Grand Prix. These updates played a crucial role in closing the distance to Red Bull and securing more podium finishes.
Moreover, the competition among the teams trailing behind Red Bull has intensified. McLaren, after a tumultuous start to the season, has managed to turn their fortunes around and is now posing a serious challenge for podium positions.
The battle for upgrades and advancements between these teams is heating up, as they strive to close the gap with the dominant Red Bull outfit.
As the season progresses, Hamilton and Mercedes continue to work tirelessly to understand the intricacies of their car’s performance, aiming to identify areas for further improvement.
With McLaren’s resurgence and the ever-present threat of Red Bull, the championship battle promises to be intense and captivating, with each team leaving no stone unturned in their quest for success.
Hamilton feels more needs to be done to close the gap when discussing with media: “I’m always trying to rely on my driving ability to make up for the deficit, but it’s not been ultimately enough in a lot of places.
“If you look at the race in Silverstone, you may not have seen it, but we were equal in time until Turn 13 to Max on a qualifying lap. Then we just lost the performance and speed after that.”
Even though Mercedes has delivered changes to their car up until the summer break, they are still working hard at the plant to understand the implications.
Hamilton explained: “The thing we can’t see is the airflow throughout the car and they’re [engineers] just limited.
“All the vortices would blow your mind if you saw what’s happening underneath the car, which is a lot different to the to the to the previous generations of cars.
“Working through that just takes time and also you’re very limited resources as well so you have to be careful which decisions you make.”
F1 teams are only allowed a fixed number of wind tunnel and computational fluid dynamics hours to design their car.
Those that finished higher up the order the previous season, like as Mercedes and Red Bull, were given less time than those who finished last.
This has a massive impact on car development, says Hamilton: “If you go full steam ahead this direction, you could lose weeks of development and it could be tenths of performance.
“So they [engineers] have to be very methodical in the way they go through that process.”
