© Sebastian Kawka for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
After a difficult Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton said he thinks Mercedes’ new floor did not work at the Interlagos Circuit.
After struggling at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton said he thinks Mercedes new floor, introduced at the United States Grand Prix, did not work at Interlagos.
“My guess is that the floor is not working,” the Briton said.
“The floor is not sucking it down. So that pushed us to go to a higher wing, and then we’re just massively draggy on the straights.
“And we’re losing so much time on the straights, there’s nothing I can do about it, and then we’re just sliding through the corners.
“So we have to look into why that is the case on this rough circuit.”
Lewis said that passing the two Aston Martins at the start did not make him more optimistic about his chances in the race.
“No, I knew that we’d have a difficult day. Nothing changed in the car from yesterday to today. So I knew it’d be a tough one.
“Yesterday I just ate through the tyres with an unexpected lack of pace. And then I think I drove better today in terms of making my stints, but we were just slow.”
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“I don’t know. I’m sure there’s something within the set-up that we might have been able to have done a bit better, but whether or not that would have put us further up, I can’t say.”
At one point in the race, the Briton even said that it felt like his left front wheel was turning right.
“Yeah, it’s super strange. I wondered if the tyre maybe hadn’t been done up or something, but the car started turning right whilst I was going left.
“But it was fine in the end. I think it must have been just a gust of wind.”
Asked whether Mercedes’ issues were track specific, Lewis said he wasn’t sure.
“Hard to say. Ultimately, in the moment it is a setback, but as a team we’ll just come together, and we’ll try and push forward.
“There’ll be a lot of analysis this week after today and I’m sure there’ll be things we were like: ‘Ah maybe if we’ve done this it, would have been better.’
“But I think still ultimately the car didn’t work here for some reason, and that is the way it is,” Hamilton concluded.
