Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes could have made more out of the extended second practice session for the Canadian Grand Prix, despite setting the fastest time.
An extra half-hour of running was added to the second session on Friday at the track first practice was red-flagged after four minutes and never restarted due to a problem with the CCTV system at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.“It was a strange day because obviously we missed the first session,” said Hamilton, “I felt really bad for all the fans that are out there, we had a great crowd already from yesterday, the city’s pumping. So I don’t know what happened with CCTV cameras or something like that.”
Hamilton led a one-two for Mercedes in the second session, which ran for 90 minutes instead of the usual 60. However he believes the team could have made better use of the extra time.
“I’m glad that we got to go out and it was nice to have an hour and a half session,” he said. “We haven’t had an hour and a half for a long time, so then I felt like the time was not used optimally. So we’ll get back and have a look at how, but I was just itching to go like ‘get me out, let’s maximise the time out there’.
“But I love driving this track, it’s mega. The moment you leave the pit lane you’re like ‘yeah, this is wicked’. The car didn’t feel bad, I think we’ve definitely got some work to do.”
Both Mercedes drivers said the Montreal circuit felt rough and they need to work on improving the car’s ride overnight. “It’s not the greatest but not the worst by far,” said Hamilton. “It’s been pretty decent, it’s just bumpy. I think everyone’s having the struggles with the bumps, so I think we’ve just got to improve our ride control and a bit of a balance through corner and I think we’ll be alright.”
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However following the updates Mercedes brought to its car in Monaco, Hamilton was pleased by how much better his car feels at the circuit compared to 12 months ago.
“I can only compare to last year and it’s massively better than last year,” he said. “The rear end is not, necessarily, but overall the car is just a step forwards and I do think I’m definitely feeling the improvements that we felt in Monaco here.”
George Russell, who was less than three-hundredths of a second slower than his team mate in practice, does not believe their position at the top of the times sheets is representative of their performance.
“It was a reasonably productive session,” he said. “I don’t think we can read too much into the timings obviously we did our low fuel qualifying prep towards the end of the session when the track was quicker.”
“It’s bumpy,” he added, “it’s blummin’ bumpy out there.”
Russell echoed Hamilton’s view that the team’s recent upgrade to its car is continuing to deliver improvements in its handling across very different tracks.
“Between Barcelona and here, they’re two totally different circuits,” he said. “Barcelona, super smooth, high speed circuit, here it’s incredibly bumpy.
“But I do think the upgrades we brought to the car in Barcelona have helped the limitations that we probably would have had more of with the old specification of car.”
Despite Mercedes leading the times today, Russell isn’t convinced they have the pace to lead the pursuit of Red Bull this weekend.
“We need to find out where we’re going to be,” he said. “I think we’re still on the tail end especially in qualifying pace compared to Ferrari and Aston Martin. There might be even, Valtteri looked quick, maybe an Alpine, but we always know it comes to us on a Sunday, so that’s when it’s going to matter.”
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2023 Canadian Grand Prix
- Norris ‘even more’ sure Canada penalty was wrong after review request fails
- McLaren seeking more than just downforce gains from major upgrade
- Winning more races won’t necessarily lead to F1 seat – Palou
- Red Bull’s testing restriction will “massively affect” 2024 car development
- Schumacher’s set-up input gives Mercedes a “super advantage” – Wolff
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
17th June 2023, 4:32
As a dyed in the wool Mercedes fan. I’m delighted that the car’s upgrades are improvements!
However we’d all do well to remember that Merc & LH have always been the arch & best “sandbaggers” in F!.
George & Max are progressing very well through the sandbagging academy!
grat
17th June 2023, 6:18
Bit harsh to accuse them of sandbagging– it undermines the hard work the team is putting in to get on top of this particular chassis.
The real sandbagger is Max in the RB19. I’m convinced he has some performance left in the tank on that car that we haven’t seen yet this year. He and Christian are far too quick to downplay the performance of the car to be entirely trusted.
Mercedes has shown that with the new design direction they’re taking the W14+, there’s some potential to be unlocked. The first version of the W14 seemed to get slower as the weekend progressed– we’ll know after FP3 if they’ve solved that problem. I think the only way they win is for there to be rain– the Red Bull’s achille’s heel, if it has one, seems to be downforce– it’s a low drag car (was what, +10 kph on the straights today?), but seems to be a bit twitchy. Inclement weather might be just what Mercedes and Aston Martin need.