© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Lewis Hamilton talks about Mercedes’ development plans, and adds Red Bull “seem to be continuously bringing upgrades on their car”.
Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton explains car development is a very slow process, especially because of the complicated airflow on F1’s current generation of cars.
“The thing we can’t see is the airflow throughout the car,” the Briton said.
“They’re limited when you look in the wind tunnel, there’s only a certain amount you can move the car.
“There’s simulations, with the new rules that we have, all the new tools that we’ve had to create to understand the flow structures underneath the car and all vortices would blow your mind if you saw what’s happening underneath the car, which is a lot different to the previous generations of cars. Working through that just takes time.”
Lewis then explained how F1’s Aerodynamic Testing Restriction also limits the teams in terms of development.
“You’re very limited with resources as well so you have to be careful of which decisions you make.
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“If you go full-steam ahead in this direction, you could lose weeks of development, it could be tenths of performance.
“So they have to be very methodical in the way they go through that process. I wish it was faster, but unfortunately it’s not.
“Things are in the pipeline for many races to come. That’s always the case because it takes time to build things.”
Lewis then commented on his relationship with Mercedes’ returning Technical Director James Allison.
“James is great, we’ve got a really good relationship. He knows when to be stern and… He’s probably never actually soft, to be honest.
“We had a great meeting just the other day when we had all the heads of departments within the room, George and I, just making sure we are on the same page.
“[There’s] great communication and we have 100% faith in them and I think just as a group, as a whole, that we will get to where we need to be. It’s just going to take some time.”
He then talked about his expectations from the Hungarian Grand Prix.
“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.
“But this has been a strong circuit for me and I think last year it was a strong circuit for us. If you look at the last race for some reason we seem to be very – you may not have seen it – but we were equal in time until turn 13 to Max on a qualifying lap. Or George was, for example.
“And then we just lose performance in the high-speed after that. So given that this is more medium and low-speed, I’m hoping it will be closer.”
However, the big upgrade package that Red Bull brought to Hungary could be another obstacle the team will have to overcome.
“I heard that Red Bull might have an upgrade package this weekend, once again, so we’ll see how that affects them.
“They seem to be continuously bringing upgrades on their car,” Hamilton concluded.
