Lewis Hamilton sick of sounding like ‘broken record’ with Mercedes car requests

Thomas Maher 24 Jul 2023 6:45 AM

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Budapest, July 2023.

Lewis Hamilton said he struggled with the balance of his W14 during the course of a long Hungarian Grand Prix.

Having started from pole position after a mega qualifying lap saw him get the better of Max Verstappen on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton was consigned to only fourth place in the race after losing positions at the race start.

While Hamilton made a reasonable start to the race, Verstappen made a better getaway to seize the advantage into Turn 1 – the move wrong-footing Hamilton to the point where he lost position to both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri behind.

Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes still have a lot of work to do

While Saturday hinted the W14 had taken a significant step forward, it proved a false dawn as the race showed just how far behind Mercedes still are in terms of race pace as both Red Bull and McLaren seemed to have more in hand.

“The car isn’t much quicker. This weekend, it was quicker, and we don’t know what the reason is,” Hamilton said after the race.

“我的意思是,我们通常有一个更大的机翼和一些of the others, like the Red Bulls for example, but they seem to have more downforce from their floor.

“So we have a lot of work to do. Like a broken record, I’ve just got to keep telling the guys where we need to go in that direction.

“So I would love to see that either this year or, at least, on next year’s car.”

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Hamilton explained that the pace coming to him as the race went on was down to the car’s balance improving as the race went on, allowing him to put the pressure on Sergio Perez in the closing stages.

But that position was as far as Hamilton might have gotten had every aspect of his race been optimised, as he hazarded a guess at how it could have gone had he not lost three positions at the start.

“I think we may have been able to finish third with a slightly better start, but fourth is still OK,” he said.

“We were just too slow in the first few stints. The balance was not good. The car was just slow. Then the balance picked up a lot at the end and, all of a sudden, I was able to apply the pressure, but it was too late.”

Lewis Hamilton: The reality is Mercedes aren’t fast enough

But, despite the turnaround in fortune from Saturday into Sunday, Hamilton said he isn’t leaving Hungary feeling downbeat about his and the team’s prospects.

“Disappointed? No, I think it’s obvious that we’re not the quickest,” he said.

“We don’t have the quickest car and I think I’m really proud of myself and the job that we did yesterday to get pole position, to outperform the World Champion, and the other two cars that are quicker than us.

“Today, it’s reality. The reality is we’re not fast enough. They told me the strategy this morning, I would be at least six, five-tenths slower than the Red Bulls. The fight was not with Max, but we were hoping that we could fight the McLarens. But they were too quick for us also.”