Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes ‘not on form’ in Hungary as hot weather struggles continue
A tricky day for Mercedes as their hot weather struggles continued at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton has admitted Mercedes haven’t “been on form” during Friday practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was only seventh fastest in the more representative second practice session, 0.6s down on Lando Norris’ top time.
George Russell didn’t fare much better in the other Mercedes, setting the fifth best time in FP2.
Reflecting on the day at the Hungaroring. Hamilton said: “Today’s not been a good day really. The weather’s been good. It’s been nice to be here. We’ve not been on form today.
“The car hasn’t felt good setup wise. I think we have an idea why. We’ll just work overnight. Not the best prep so far.”
Hamilton hinted that there’s a significant change Mercedes can make overnight to improve their level of performance, stating “there’s a particular thing”.
Even so, Hamilton - who has won the Hungarian GP on eight previous occasions - was adamant Mercedes didn’t have the pace of either McLaren or Red Bull.
“Little tweaks but the car was pretty much the same [between the sessions]. “He added. “There’s a particular thing that we had left that was changed for this weekend that we need to go back on. It’s all relatively close otherwise.
“We couldn’t do the laps of the other guys today but the long run pace was decent at the end.”
Since introducing a new front wing in Monaco, Mercedes have enjoyed an impressive upward trajectory.
They’ve won two races, winning the British Grand Prix with Hamilton on merit.
However, it seems the W15 performs best in cooler conditions - like Canada and Britain - while during hotter weather, it struggles relatively-speaking.
Russell believes it’s something Mercedes still need to work on if they’re going to challenge Norris and Verstappen at the Hungaroring.
“We definitely got in more laps than most in the long run between FP1 and FP2,” he explained. “McLaren looks really quick, Lando is flying at the moment. I don’t think Max is too far behind. I think there’s a power difference between those two in the qualifying laps.
“Race run, Lando, Max, look a bit out front. The hot conditions of Austria and Barcelona, we were off the pace versus those two drivers, and in the cooler conditions, we were ahead of those two. Something we need to work on.”
