Lewis Hamilton reveals the impact of Mercedes’ Imola F1 upgrades
Mercedes' Imola upgardes assessed by Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ upgrades made little difference to their overall performance at the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Mercedes introduced the latest batch of updates to their troubled and inconsistent W15 at Imola, following on from the first part of an upgrade package that debuted in Miami two weeks earlier.
Hamilton finished sixth in Sunday’s grand prix, one place ahead of his two-stopping teammate George Russell, with the front-running Mercedes finishing some 35 seconds behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who took his fifth victory in seven races.
The seven-time world champion downplayed the impact of the updates after the race, saying they made “not a big difference”.
Hamilton added: “They are small steps but very, very small.
“My pace in the second stint stint was comparable to the guys towards the front. But we're still I think we're still lacking two or three-tenths.”
Despite the seemingly minimal step forward, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said he feels “more confident” his side are not on the right development path after two frustrating seasons of underwhelming competitiveness.
“I think that what we are seeing on the car now is that those incremental gains that we are bringing rather than a miracle update are getting the car in a better balance window and making the car just have more performance,” he explained.
"But it’s these things where you gain a tenth or a tenth and a half but at the same time the other teams are making progress.
“We are on a trajectory where we are making the car better, we can see that, it’s never like the share price going up like this it will do like this [gestures], as long as the kind of direction is correct and I feel more confident now.”
Hamilton made a sizeable error during the race when he ran wide at Acque Minerali and took a trip through the gravel.
“I think [I lost] about probably about five seconds with that off,” Hamilton conceded.
“Then that meant that I came out behind Fernando and I lost another bunch of seconds there so I think probably all in all probably eight seconds.
“So not ideal, but it didn't lose any positions.”
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for Crash.net around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
