Lewis Hamilton admitted he lacked confidence in the rear end of his Mercedes Formula 1 car during the opening practice sessions for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
Mercedes committed to a complete revamp with its latest car, the W15, in the endeavour to eradicate the “spiteful” rear-end tendencies of its recalcitrant predecessor.
Despite a subdued race showing in Bahrain that was compromised by cooling concerns, both drivers expressed satisfaction with the compliance of Mercedes’ car.
However, the second practice hour in Jeddah proved a troublesome affair for Hamilton as he wound up eighth overall, four-tenths behind team-mate George Russell.
The seven-time F1 champion revealed that he had made several revisions between the two sessions in pursuit of a more stable platform at the rear but to no avail.
“Yeah, difficult day. Just lacking the confidence in the rear of the car and the set-up,” Hamilton assessed.
“We did some work from session to session, changed the car quite a bit, but [there was an] underlying issue with the rear end that I was struggling with, so I had a couple of really big moments out there. In these high speeds areas, you need to have full faith in the rear of the car and I’ve just not got that yet.”
Like in Bahrain, Hamilton disclosed that he and Russell had diverged on set-up direction, with his team-mate appearing to be more comfortable with the W15.
Asked about the expectations heading into tomorrow, Hamilton replied: “I don’t know, we’re going to go through the data, but George is just obviously a lot happier with his car.
“We kind of went in different directions today. We’re all trying different things to try and find the right solution for the car. But yeah, I don’t know.
“All I want is a stable rear and then I’ll be happy, so that’s what I’m working on.”
Russell fronted the Mercedes charge in Bahrain and clocked the second fastest time in FP2, 0.230 seconds behind Fernando Alonso’s pacesetting lap for Aston Martin.
However, the Briton contends that he was unable to hit the sweet spot on the set-up, despite the times looking encouraging for Mercedes on the short and long runs.
“Yeah, it’s fun to be back in Jeddah. Such a high-speed circuit that’s really enjoyable,” Russell reviewed.
“Little bit of a scrappy session. I don’t think we’ve probably had the car in the perfect window, I think the lap times look good in the low-fuel, high-fuel pace.
“Not sure where we’re at really as it’s so close again. The Aston’s were a bit of a surprise but it’s good to see them up there.
“But now we’ve got work to do overnight and see what we can achieve tomorrow.”
Russell pointed out how the two Mercedes drivers opted to reverse set-up configurations on their cars as the team sought to understand more about its package.
“We did a lot of testing in FP1. Lewis started on one set-up, what I started on was drastically different. And then, FP2 we did a complete opposite,” he explained.
“We swapped set-ups to see what works, learn more about the car and try and get more feedback from us both.
“It’s still early days, it’s only the second race of the season. It’s a new car and we have only been to one circuit beforehand and we need to keep on learning so let’s see what we can do tonight. Everyone back home is going to be working hard on the simulator and try and eke out a bit more performance.”
Russell reckons that Red Bull will prove to be untouchable again in the race, but he is optimistic that Mercedes can challenge both Aston Martin and Ferrari.
“It’s a little bit too early to say,” Russell said regarding the race runs. “I don’t actually know, I haven’t seen the lap times.
“For sure Max [Verstappen] is the quickest, Checo [Sergio Perez] not too far behind. I think the cars are becoming increasingly harder to follow as the years progress.
“I think it’s going to be tight again as we saw in Bahrain. Ferrari and Aston probably look like our biggest threats and rivals at the moment, but it’s going to go down to qualifying again.”
With following in another car’s wake proving more troublesome with the latest iteration of machines, securing grid position could become even more imperative this season.
The first bout of track action of the race weekend demonstrated that traffic will be a factor, though, with Hamilton escaping a penalty for impeding Logan Sargeant.
“It’s always difficult in Jeddah, and you can’t have it all,” Russell said regarding the traffic. “It’s one of the circuits to drive, so exhilarating but you can’t see! It’s definitely challenging.
“The FIA at the start of this year introduced something on our steering wheel to show us the car in front and the car behind and the gaps which has been a really big improvement, but the thing is if you’ve got two cars behind on a slow lap, you might have a car travelling at 200mph 10 seconds behind and he passes through.
“I think that’s what happened with Lewis and Sargeant, it will say the direct car behind but you don’t know who is three or four cars behind on a push lap.”
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