Lewis Hamilton is adamant that Mercedes has unlocked the right direction with its 2024 Formula 1 car as he revealed the team has upgrades coming “in the pipeline”.
Despite renewed optimism amid the choice to overhaul its car concept for this term, Mercedes has endured a challenging start to the season and lies in fourth place.
George Russell has admitted that the German outfit overcompensated with the modifications it has made on the W15 to eradicate its predecessor’s recalcitrant traits.
Mercedes has been laboured with correlation issues in the nascent rounds but introduced a revised floor in Miami last time out that delivered the anticipated promise.
With more new parts being implemented this weekend at Imola, Hamilton has charted the developments the marque has planned to begin undoing the inherent flaws.
“From my side, it’s not been great, good at all,” Hamilton conceded. “But the last race was positive and there’s a long, long way to go.
“So I’m just really excited for the developments that are coming. We’ve had a step in the last race and we’ve got a step this weekend and there’s more in the pipeline.
“I feel like we’ve found more of our North Star and what we need to do and change. It just takes time.
“But the energy in the team is amazing. They’re so resilient in this team. We just continue to push, even though we’ve been knocked down quite a few times.
“So we’re just going to continue to keep our heads down and stay focused and try and do the best job we can each weekend.”
With Mercedes optimistic it has understood its woes, Hamilton denied it was “depressing” that he has to wait for the upgrades that could transcend the team’s form.
“I wouldn’t say it isn’t depressing, no. It’s just a patience game and just making do with what you have, making the most of the tools that you have at your disposal,” he said.
“But it is really encouraging that we are seeing progress back at the factory in the wind tunnel.
“We do have new components coming and that’s always an exciting part of the process is figuring, trying lots of different things and then finding out what works and what doesn’t and the fact that we do have kind of a direction forward and we’ve tested it on the simulator. So then you just like itching to get those bits.
“So they’re working, you know, people are really, really pushed. This is a real, real push, pushing time for people in terms of spending time at the factory and working to get these things brought earlier and we need it all hands on deck and we know we have that already.”
The seven-time champion drew encouragement from his final stint in Miami, where he was maintaining pace with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez on the Medium compound.
Hamilton believes that his competitiveness in that segment compared to the rest of the weekend showcased the narrow operating window Mercedes is operating in.
“Well, the day before we had a different set-up,” he explained. “I changed the car for qualifying for Sunday’s race, and it goes back to what George was mentioning earlier, where we had that one session, and we are still in the discovery process with this car, and it’s not easy to extract its maximum performance, it’s a very small window.
“I think I was stuck mostly in traffic the day before, but we weren’t particularly hugely quick, and then with the changes that I made to the set-up, Sunday was a lot better.
“I think he was still quicker, but I was in his DRS most of the time, so I think I was gaining quite a lot of time from that, and it’s just keeping me close. But yeah, it was great to be close.”
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