Lewis Hamilton suspects Mercedes will fare better in this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix than it has done in the previous seasons under this Formula 1 regulation set.
Hamilton is a three-time winner in Monte Carlo, but he has not stood on the podium at the venue since 2019 amid Mercedes’ woes with the current ground effect cars.
Despite the marque harbouring hope a revised car concept would deliver a step forward, Mercedes has slipped back to a distant fourth in the championship this term.
However, Mercedes has taken encouragement from recent updates at the previous two rounds, with boss Toto Wolff optimistic it has now unlocked a “clear direction”.
Although the team is not introducing more developments this weekend, Hamilton expects Mercedes’ W15 to be stronger than its recalcitrant predecessors at Monaco.
“Well, we don’t have any upgrades this weekend. We have basically the package spread over two weekends in the last two races, “Hamilton revealed.
“We have like our highest downforce level, which everyone has here, and we have an evolved wing. But otherwise, we don’t know what we’re going to do this weekend.
“And I’m definitely feeling more excited about it compared to the previous two cars because those two are not so great.
“This one’s a real work in progress and I think it hopefully should be a lot better here than it was last year.”
Monaco is regarded as an outlier on the calendar where a driver can overcompensate for a car’s deficiencies much more than at the conventional circuits elsewhere.
Hamilton has stressed the importance in getting into a flow from practice and reiterated his credence that Mercedes should have a better base to build upon this time.
“I mean, we’re at the wings of simulation tools and figuring out how grippy the surface is, how bumpy it is, how high you can, or how low you can put the car, high to low-speed balances, mechanical balance, weight distribution, canvas, tows, all these things,” he explained. “There are so many things that you have that come into a journey.
“You can practice on the simulator but it’s not until you get to the actual track that you discover issues that you may or may not have.
“But yeah, in the perfect world you hit the ground running and you don’t look back. But that’s not been the case in the last couple of years.
“But as I said, I am more confident going into this weekend.
“This car is much more predictable and much more enjoyable to drive. Still not perfect, but it is progressing in the right direction.”
But with Mercedes still combating problems with balancing high and low-speed cornering, Hamilton has admitted it is not a guarantee that the team will be competitive.
When it was put to him that Mercedes’ 2024 car has tended to go better through slow-speed sections, Hamilton retorted: “Again it’s not really the case I would say if you look at Suzuka we were very slow in the slow speed, if you look at Jeddah we were fast in the slow speed and terrible in the high speed.
“So I have no doubt I dare to get out there tomorrow I think we should be a little bit better here I think the car is the window is starting to open in terms of performance between high and low so I’m really hoping that we’ve got it in a bit of a sweet spot and we can be a bit closer.
“We weren’t that far off in qualifying last year actually with a much worse car. I hope that says something this weekend.”
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