© Sam Bloxham for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ form is “difficult to take sometimes”, but adds he’ll remain “hopeful we can get the car in a better place tomorrow”.
Mercedes surprised everyone by topping the timesheets in Miami Grand Prix FP1, however, by the time FP rolled around, Lewis Hamilton dropped to P7 and George Russell to P15.
After the session, Lewis admitted the drop in performance is hard to take.
“It’s a great weekend, it’s a great place to be, lots of positives,” the Briton said.
“It’s just we’re not particularly quick. It’s a struggle out there. Just trying lots of different things. FP1 looks quite good and to come into FP2, and then the true pace came out.
“It’s just a kick in the gut. It’s difficult to take sometimes. But it’s OK. We’ll keep on working on it, and reboot tonight and try to make some setup changes and get the car in the sweet spot.”
Lewis added that the W14’s performance in Miami seems like a step backwards compared to two previous races.
“Melbourne obviously was a night and day difference, much much nicer to drive there. Baku felt better than here also.
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“I think maybe the heat [is the problem], or maybe just the balance we have at the moment.
“So I’m going to stay optimistic, and I’m going to stay hopeful we can get the car in a better place tomorrow, and maybe be a couple of steps up.
“It feels like… last year we had hardcore bouncing, it generally feels like we’re reaching pretty much the same car. That’s the difficult thing.”
When asked what he expects out of qualifying tomorrow, Lewis said:
“I don’t have expectation. I just hope that I can get it into a better place tomorrow. I hope we can be in Q3, and I hope we can be mid-bunch of that top 10.
“That would be great,” he concluded.
