Lewis Hamilton and George Russell said small changes to the configuration of their Mercedes have made a major difference to a car which was only the fifth-quickest at the start of the year.
Russell beat Hamilton to pole position for the British Grand Prix today. It is the first time Mercedes have locked out the front row of the grid based on qualifying times since the technical regulations changed in 2022.After two seasons pursuing a similar car design philosophy, Mercedes changed their approach for this year. Since then they have gradually improved their car’s performance.
Russell took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix, albeit after setting an identical lap time to Max Verstappen, and won the Austrian Grand Prix after the Red Bull driver collided with Lando Norris.
After leading the team to their first one-two in a conventional qualifying session since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Russell said minor tweaks have made a significant difference to the W15’s performance.
“We’ve made some small changes which have had a big impact,” he said. “We knew from the start of this year [that] the baseline of this car is substantially better than what we’ve had in previous years.
“But we went from having an ‘oversteer car’ last year, then to an ‘understeer car’ this year. And now we’ve just dialled it back and found the happy medium.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“When you’ve got the balance in a good place, the tyre temperatures are in the right window, and the lap time just really snowballs positively. It hasn’t been a substantial change, but it’s made a massive difference to the lap time.”
Hamilton agreed the team has made a “massive difference” to its car’s performance in recent races.
“It’s just better everywhere,” he said. “[In] Bahrain, for example, the car felt terrible, and… we made [progress] in terms of dialling and fine-tuning the car to optimise the aero package.”
He believes the team has finally been able to channel its development potential in a useful direction with a ground effect-era car.
“This team has never struggled to add performance, but where particularly they put that performance has always been, with this generation of car, has been a big question and where we’re getting the downforce from. But now they’ve done an amazing job, the engineers back at the factory.”
However Hamilton sounded a note of caution that Mercedes haven’t yet proved as competitive as Red Bull and McLaren in race trim.
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
“We’ll definitely take it today, but Red Bull, particularly Max, and the McLarens are very, very, very fast. And in some ways, you saw in the last race, they were quite a bit ahead of us.
“So I’m hoping that tomorrow, with the conditions, we can hold our own.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 British Grand Prix
- The ‘good and bad’ reason Piastri is sure he can win after three near-misses
- Gasly solved mystery handling problem by using Ocon’s settings
- Mercedes “will be in an even stronger position” after next upgrade – Hamilton
- Verstappen “refuses to believe” Red Bull are reaching limit of RB20’s potential
- Why “under construction” McLaren still celebrate third place after missing a win
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
6th July 2024, 20:17
Lewis thinking …. “Gonna be great driving for Ferrari next year. Perhaps”
Ben
6th July 2024, 21:42
I think he’ll still be happy with the move. Russell beats him almost weekly now, so his chances of a pole or win are extremely slim. He can either play number 2 at Mercedes or live out a dream drive for Ferrari against a still fairly inconsistent Leclerc.
Applebook
6th July 2024, 22:52
Pretty much. Leclerc is so inconsistent in both qualifying and races that a washed Lewis can still look competitive. Would Lewis rather be P5 but ahead of his teammate at Ferrari or be first of the losers to George in P2?
Edvaldo
6th July 2024, 22:12
Hamilton is 39. Most drivers are at home by this age. The only reason people forget about this is because Alonso is even older.
They can be very competitive still, but i don’t think any of them is fast enough anymore to take on the fastest drivers of the grid. The new generation is matured already, so i don’t think he’s going to Ferrari thinking of winning a WDC, he’s living the dream and probably retiring gracefully after the 2nd year.
His time has passed. Max (who’s been around for almost as longe as much older drivers like Bottas), Russell and Norris are the stars now.
Doh
7th July 2024, 0:13
Doesn’t mean it’s impossible, give these experienced hands a consistent race winning car and they’ll be there with, especially with the extra motivation. Lewis just finished 60 points ahead of George last season and is only 25 behind atm. I don’t doubt that they lose a little raw speed as they’re a bit older but that only makes it more impressive. The field is looking increasingly competitive now though so if this continues into next season instead of one team and driver getting away it will be great to see how it all plays out.
JackL
6th July 2024, 21:14
“After two seasons pursuing a similar car design philosophy, Mercedes changed their approach for this year.” Does that mean that Hamilton was right with the calls he made for a change in philosophy and car design?
Damon (@damon)
6th July 2024, 21:15
No, it doesn’t mean that.
SteveP
7th July 2024, 7:44
Ask yourself a different question; given that there were two years of equally bad, why did Russell not make calls for change?
LH has always said he needs to “feel” part of the car, GR just drives it and when it’s better, I don’t think he knows why.
Listen to Max whinge about the car being “all wrong” sometime*, he knows the difference too.
*It rarely is, but when it is, he’s definitely telling the pit wall about it (bleep, bleep, bleep)