勒wis Hamilton makes frank admission to Max Verstappen in Canada cool-down room

勒wis Hamilton admitted the Mercedes W14 currently “sucks in the lower speed corners”, despite its overall improvement in recent races.

Hamilton took a well-earned podium at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, finishing third behind fellow World Champions in Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

There will doubtless have been a tinge of disappointment after a superb start saw him jump past Alonso into the first corner, before the Aston Martin driver was able to re-overtake later on in the race and hold onto second place.

In the cooldown room prior to the podium and speaking to Verstappen about the race, Hamilton discussed the performance as a whole and then stated: “We suck in the lower speed corners.”

With Mercedes having made significant changes to their car of late, the seven-time World Champion pinpointed where he would like to see the team improve next – though pointed out they are heading “in the right direction” with their development.

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“Well, firstly, quite an honour to be up there with two World Champions,” Hamilton said after the chequered flag.

“I was really excited to be third and just trying to be in that mix. But unfortunately, we didn’t have the pace today.

“We knew that this weekend, this wouldn’t be our strongest circuit as we struggle in the lower speed corners particularly, and that’s really where I was losing to Fernando and to Max – just on traction out of Turn 2, out of pretty much every corner.

“But we’ve got a lot of work to do just to add rear downforce to the car, and a little bit more efficiency, but we’re chipping away as I said, and I do believe we will get there at some stage.

“Max was a little bit gone, but I think our paces were a little bit closer today so we’re going in the right direction.

“It’s honestly been a great weekend for us. I think we’re slowly chipping away, I think the Astons took a little bit of step ahead this weekend when they had the upgrades but we’re working on bringing some more moving forwards.”

Hamilton moved into fourth place in theDrivers’ standingswith his latest podium, while Mercedes hold a 13-point advantage over Aston Martin in the Constructors’ table in second place.