Hamilton ‘covering up’ frustration | Mercedes have ‘quite a fix to do'
Mercedes endured two difficult Friday practice sessions at the British Grand Prix as Hamilton only managed the 15th-fastest time of the day.
It meant Hamilton was over 1.2s off Max Verstappen’s top pace going into tomorrow.
Mercedes would have been encouraged by their race pace, with Hamilton setting some good times on the long runs, however, the handling of the W14 looked tricky all day.
Schiff reacted to Hamilton’s post-race interview after practice, who didn’t believe the British driver’s positive mindset after a difficult day.
“I think he was not as happy as he thought he was,” she said. “He was covering it up nicely. They had a glimmer in their eye in Barcelona and Canada so this, for them, doesn’t feel like good news.
“The positive was that their long run pace was decent. Now they have got to make sure that they get as high up onto the grid. But it looks like quite a fix to make.”
2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button is unsure Mercedes will be able to cure the “fundamental issues” that continue to plague them this weekend.
“They will spend hours on the simulator tonight fine-tuning the car,” he added. “But as he says, when you have car that you do big set-up changes on? And it has the same fundamental issues? It makes it difficult to drive.
“Especially on a circuit like Silverstone, where there is a lot of wind and high speed corners. It can make it very twitchy. Hopefully they can sort it because we want to see both drivers from Mercedes competitive.”
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