© Stephen Reuss for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says “the whole team is, not necessarily on a high, but there’s a great energy within the team that we finally have the direction that we need to be working towards”.
Ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was asked about the work the team has done understanding why he was experiencing difficulties in qualifying.
“A huge amount of analysis,” the Briton said.
“I’d requested a lot of information from the team on how we can improve and where we are lacking.
“It is simply with tyres, so just continuing to improve on our processes from session to session.
“Particularly once you get to qualifying things to change a little bit, the car is obviously lighter and you’re in the DRS a lot more.
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“But time will tell. I think we cracked something, now it’s to try and build on that.”
Lewis then further explained what is causing the issues.
“The car aerodynamically, is more on a knife edge. It’s not as easy to balance with the mechanical side and the aero balance from high to low speed. Getting that configuration is difficult.
“But tyre temp and also then how you do your out laps is key, which every single team is trying to sort.
“Just look at the Ferraris in Montreal, who didn’t get out of Q2 for example. That could only be tyre temperature, as they have got a quick car and they won the race before that.
“So it just shows that it’s easy to not have the tyres working. It’s easy to overwork the tyres. They’re definitely more sensitive, I think, than any other season that I remember being in.”
In the end, the Briton says the whole team is now energized and working toward improving their car.
“Probably just the whole team is, not necessarily on a high, but there’s a great energy within the team that we finally have the direction that we need to be working towards.
“People in the factory definitely have a spring in their step and for me, for sure, it feels good to be back in competitive position.
“I just want to continue it, but we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves for sure,” Hamilton concluded.
