Lewis Hamilton admitted he isn’t comfortable in Mercedes’ latest car this weekend after being out-qualified by his team mate again.
Speaking after qualifying eighth on the grid behind George Russell for today’s race, Hamilton said the the team’s extensive changes to its latest design hadn’t stopped the car bouncing at high speeds on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit despite .“It’s similar to previous years,” he told Sky. “There are so many elements of this car which are which are better, it’s just we’ve been hindered by the bouncing that we have through [turns] six, seven, eight, nine, ten, which I think probably affected George [too].”
Mercedes “have not been able to fix” the problem consistently, said Hamilton, who explained it had come and gone during practice for this weekend’s race.
“We made some changes overnight and this morning car the felt so much better, I was regaining this confidence again. And then when we get to qualifying, it disappears again.
“But George is doing a great job. He’s a lot more comfortable in the car. A bit similar to the past couple of years, I would say.
“But we will keep our heads down, we’ll keep working away. I got a bit of a better feeling as to where the issue is coming from so I will try and address it for the team.”
The consistently high speeds F1 cars corner at in Jeddah appear to have exacerbated the problem, said Hamilton.
“We’ve tried every set-up change. We can’t get rid of it. It’s difficult to explain it, we had some bouncing in Bahrain, but nowhere near is as intense as here.
“That first sector is super-high-speed, there’s a lot of yaw in the car and a lot of lateral load, and the bouncing really upsets the car quite a bit.
“If you imagine when the car goes up and down at the back, your balance shifts forwards and rearwards. If you’re doing that at 160, 170 miles an hour, correcting that each time is really… the others that are going, for example Max [Verstappen] is flat through six, seven, eight and the balance is just stable.
“That’s what we’re working towards. We’ve got to fix it, it’s like three years in a row, we’ve got to get on top of it.”
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Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
9th March 2024, 9:23
Well, Sir Lewis Hamilton “designed” 2024 car, pushing for his preferable cockpit position and visiting factory multiple times last year. The end result is this and Russell beating him in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia comfortably, despite leaving 0.5s on the table yesterday in quali.
falken (@falken)
9th March 2024, 10:16
“And that’s why I’m leaving”
ludewig
9th March 2024, 10:27
He looked really upset and resigned in the interview. I think that he’s truly lost confidence in the Mercedes engineers now.
F1 Fan
9th March 2024, 11:42
Can’t wait for Leclerc vs Hamilton next year!
Boomerang
9th March 2024, 12:23
You have to work on integration of mass damper concept into shock absorbers. Prof. Malcolm Smith realized the need to introduce a new component – mass damper – by analyzing the electrical analogy of a car suspension. It shouldn’t be a problem for smart people in project offices to figure out the integration into the shock absorber to obtain the identical output of the ‘system’. That’s what RBR is doing lads. I know you’re not as clever as I am but you can do it!
falken (@falken)
9th March 2024, 13:06
Mass dampers were declared moveable aerodynamic devices and banned several years back.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th March 2024, 19:31
composites, and suspension members me thinks.
back in the day you could use electrical devices to perform trigonometric functions, now most of that is accomplished using floating point units inside general purpose processors. There is always more than one way to address the function of suspension, and materials science is probably ahead of the FIA’s regulations, just like how in all reality the ERS/electrical motor could be doing a lot in terms of ‘traction control’ and the FIA’s regulations wouldn’t have any idea how to address it. And if integrated properly, unless with the right test equipment, no one would be the wiser.
Crawliin-from-the-wreckage (@davedai)
9th March 2024, 14:09
Severe bouncing interferes with body and
with a bit of static and radio clarity.
Repeat please Lewis, “your piles have gone?”
TYRES!
Copy that.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
9th March 2024, 15:40
I’ve been wondering why Lewis is having so much trouble this season. He definitely doesn’t like a bouncy car and I can understand that. It doesn’t instill confidence and the balance is all over the place depending on whether it’s on the ground or in the air. People also react differently to extreme vibrations especially prolonged exposure.
If Mercedes made another bouncy car then we can just kiss this season goodbye. The good news for Mercedes (not Lewis) is that Russell is a lot less susceptible to the bouncing so he can at least qualify high but I’m not sure if he can sustain the position under fire from McLaren, Ferrari, and Checo’s Red Bull.
I’m curious to see how many podiums Mercedes will score this year.
1-2 tenths is the difference between P4 and P9 in qualifying now.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
10th March 2024, 15:59
very few. Ferrari have a faster Car, and Hamilton is #2 against a slower Russell.
Hamilton has to remain centered on his rhythm and create his own vibe. Carry the goodness in to Ferrari and return the favor to the Wolff in sheep’s clothing.
Andy (@andyfromsandy)
9th March 2024, 16:17
All very well bigging up George but both cars go beaten by both McLarens and an Aston. It really isn’t looking that good for Mercedes at present.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
9th March 2024, 19:16
Mercedes are too politically correct to win.