Lewis Hamilton asserts that he plans to avoid vast set-up changes to his Mercedes Formula 1 car after sustaining his “best session” of 2024 at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Hamilton has endured his “worst start” to an F1 season, with an engine failure in Australia compounding his woes following a shock Q2 elimination earlier in the weekend.
However, the Briton had reiterated his optimism that its revamped W15 challenger retains more potential than its recalcitrant predecessors despite the inconsistent spikes.
Hamilton posted the fifth-fastest time in the opening practice hour at Suzuka before rising to second late on in an FP2 session that saw limited running due to precipitation.
Despite Mercedes expecting to struggle this weekend at a high-speed venue that accentuates a core weakness of its package, Hamilton was enthused with his car’s balance.
“It was a great session, it was a really good session for us. It was the best session we’ve had this year, the best the car has felt this year so far. So I felt really positive and excited.”
“Given the difficult last few races we’ve had, great work has been done this last week and we just seem to have hit the ground a bit more in a sweeter spot.
“So I haven’t really made any changes since.”
As part of a bid to understand its ongoing correlation issues, Mercedes opted to conduct experiments on Hamilton’s car in second practice in Australia which “backfired”.
While he returned to a positive place with the W15 overnight, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff revealed a five-degree drop in track temperature contributed to a sharp decline.
Hamilton has addressed that he intends to not deviate from the baseline set-up that he was comfortable with from the outset in Japan to avoid a repeat from occurring.
Asked whether he was encouraged for the rest of the weekend, he replied: “I mean it’s hard to know, I think we’ve got a better platform or baseline to start from, so as long as we don’t make too many changes and eff it up I think probably just stay where we are.
“It’s a shame we haven’t got that session, and they have changed the tyre rule, so therefore no-one goes out and runs on the Intermediate, which doesn’t make sense really, but there you go.”
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