Lewis Hamilton has found it harder to perform at his best in qualifying since Formula 1 introduced the current technical regulations, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director believes.
The seven-times world champion holds the record for most pole positions with 104. But he has only set one since F1 introduced its current generation of technical regulations in 2022.He has trailed team mate George Russell in qualifying so far this year. Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said this is partly because the current generation of cars, with their powerful ground effect aerodynamics, does not suit his style as well as those used until 2021.
“George has always set a very high bar in qualifying,” said Shovlin. “As soon as he was in F1, he was impressing. Even in the Williams, he was doing some pretty impressive qualifying sessions. So we know that he’s very quick.
“Lewis hasn’t disguised the fact that Saturdays were his tough day. He’s struggled with this whole generation of car, really, not suiting his style. He’s been working on how he drives.”
Having won eight consecutive constructors’ championship prior to 2022, Mercedes have spent much of the last two-and-a-half years not on the pace of the front-running teams, which has added to their problems.
“We had a huge amount of work trying to get the car to be quicker – it just hasn’t been quick enough – but also with a handling balance that the drivers can actually attack the lap on Saturday.
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“We’ve made progress. Recently, George has outqualified Lewis by some fairly fine margins. So it’s great for the team that Lewis is back up there and he’ll be pushing on. But we’ll keep working on that and I’m sure that we’ll see hopefully some more Lewis pole positions as well.”
Hamilton ended a two-and-a-half year victory drought in the last race. Shovlin says his race pace remains a strength, but his attacking style in qualifying has tended to overheat the rear tyres.
“It’s particularly [that] he struggled on the single lap,” Shovlin explained. “So his long run pace is always there and that’s been really useful.
“It’s more just the way that he wants to attack a corner, when you do that, then the car would snap to oversteer. You start to build tyre temperature.
“So most of our work has been trying to give him a car that you can drive the very attacking style, extract the lap time out of it without it just sort of breaking away on the way in and catching him by surprise.”
Hamilton and Russell’s qualifying and race performances compared
2022
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2023
| BAH | SAU | AUS | AZE | MIA | MON | SPA | CAN | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | QAT | USA | MEX | BRZ | LAS | ABU | ||
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2024 – first 12 rounds
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2024 Hungarian Grand Prix
- Verstappen names Hungarian GP the most stressful moment of his title-winning year
- McLaren team orders “a new situation we’re inexperienced at handling” – Piastri
- Verstappen dismisses critics of “vocal” radio messages and late-night simracing
- Norris’ former McLaren team mates say he was right to give up win
- Mercedes surprised Hamilton’s car was “completely unscathed” in Verstappen clash
Prab
19th July 2024, 18:16
Makes sense.
I think people have been very critical of Lewis getting outqualified but he just finished 3rd last year. A car not suiting his style could something that is totally plausible. He has still had better pace than George in almost all the races.
So glad that we seem to have a 7 way battle at races now.
SteveR (@stever)
20th July 2024, 1:58
F1 is supposed to be the pinnacle of motorsport with the world’s best drivers. So adapt.
Mayrton
20th July 2024, 11:02
Driving style is (but shouldn’t) maybe be relevant for midfield drivers in terms of driver skills. It should not matter an inch to the top of them. I find this quite a weak story. Just as with Vettel. They both punch above their weight based on statistics which were influenced by car dominance.
FrankT
20th July 2024, 11:18
Ssssh! Don’t upset the british F1 media! They were telling me for years and years that we are witnessing the best this sport has ever seen, Lewis! But… if you are to be considered the best of the best of all time….shouldn’t you be able to adapt to different cars and still win?? Hmmm strange!?
Mayrton
21st July 2024, 11:14
If Rosberg takes a season from you and Bottas takes poles and wins from you. If ‘Valtteri, it’s James’ messaging occurs, you might think that also the British press would get some perspective as of what is really going on.
Drg
20th July 2024, 13:26
Amazing how many wilful know nothings appear to tell us Hamilton just had a dominant car (after the most dominant car is history destroyed the grid last year) and that his stats are all down to that, conveniently forgetting that Hamilton’s legacy is built on adapting his driving across more major regulatory and tyre changes than anyone on the grid…
And in fact more than almost any other driver
Pretty sure he will get his head round this too
Shovelin has a tendency to rewrite history in his teams favour
Almost as if they had not floundered around with a completely crap car for the last few seasons – oh no it cannot be that..
BLS (@brightlampshade)
19th July 2024, 18:51
As an F1 driver you’ve got to get the best out of what you’re given. If Hamilton doesn’t like this car in quali then that’s for him to work on / make compromises for. He still seems faster than Russell in races but Mercedes aren’t the sort of team to split strategies so he’s going to end up stuck behind George come race day more often than not.
Time to sacrifice more race pace – assuming that can actually assist the qualifying pace in this instance?
BasCB (@bascb)
21st July 2024, 12:42
That is pretty much exactly what Shovlin describes Hamilton did – only having to do that while they were still rather puzzled by how their car acted made it harder to adapt and it took until now to get there.
George.be
19th July 2024, 19:08
Seems to me the “late brakers” are all in trouble a bit with these ground effect cars.
Mr Hamilton, Mr Leclerc and Mr Riciardo seem to struggle more than with the previous generation cars.
Aquila_GD
19th July 2024, 20:32
Riccardo is not actually a late braker. He earned this monologue because of his overtakes but his actual driving style is more minimum speed through the corner rather than late apex which is seen with late brakers.
I think what has happend with the Mercedes is the car was just not good enough. As the car has improved a bit, it is giving the drivers more confidence to push and Lewis is getting more comfortable with it
Aquila_GD
19th July 2024, 19:14
I agree with this assesment. Watching Lewis drive, you can see that the car is not supporting his late braking style as the back end has been unloading quite a bit when he breaks. As the car has improved, he has found its range a bit better
André
19th July 2024, 22:34
That was particularly clear in his final quali lap in Silverstone. Watch the comparison between him and Russell and look in particular the last corner where Hamilton had most of the deficit. He braked much later, gained time, but he had to wait much longer to have the car stable to apply throttle. Russell braked earlier but carried more low speed, and launched off earlier.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
20th July 2024, 10:29
I love Lewis but personally I think time has played an inevitable part. Can you think of any past (modern-ish era F1) electric qualifiers over the age of 35? That being said he may have lost a tenth or 2 in qualifying, I still think his experience, smoothness, tyre management and race pace/management makes him a force to be reckoned with. Especially when he’s fully motivated.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
20th July 2024, 10:30
Wasn’t meant to be a reply
FrankT
20th July 2024, 11:21
But Lewis is considered the best of the best of all time by many british media! Funny how is he not capable of adapting to a different car then.
jhg103 (@joshgeake)
19th July 2024, 21:08
Just like Vettel and Riccardo then
notagrumpyfan
20th July 2024, 12:30
These ‘the car doesn’t suit his style’ stories are always a bit dangerous; they might help explain away some short-term performance drop, but it doesn’t support building a GOAT legacy.
Nick T.
20th July 2024, 12:57
Hamilton’s spin cost Alonso his one soft lap. At least this wasn’t quali. Must be the 10+ time something out of his control has prevented him from completing a fast lap. Dude has a demon following him around.
Only Facts!
20th July 2024, 13:24
This is a “tap in the shoulder” type of compliment is becoming the norm lately. Marko always has a “car lost this much downforce points” to Verstappen, now Shovlin pulls similar move on Hamilton.
I guess you’re not allowed to say “he couldn’t extract the full performance of the car” anymore.
CP
20th July 2024, 13:59
Yet somehow he was fighting Perez in a superior RedBull last year for P2 until late in the season.
What a driver.
notagrumpyfan
20th July 2024, 14:03
I know the comment is meant sarcastically, but in which way.
Fighting a ‘superior RedBull’ or fighting (an underperforming) ‘Perez’? ;)
Ajaxn
20th July 2024, 15:52
This explanation is surprisingly lame, coming from ‘’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin’.
Hamilton finished 3rd last year. This year we’ve had his announcement pretty early on, that he is leaving the team.
We are supposed to assume this has had no bearing on Hamilton’s preparation for qualifying, and that Mercedes isn’t playing the man-management game to boost Russell’s esteem before he takes on the mantle of head driver.
In recent weeks we have the allegations from Hamilton, that his tires have been consistently under-cooked, followed by his new turn of form. Against all this we have this report, ‘The car doesn’t suit Hamilton’s driving style’. Isn’t this statement something Hamilton should voice?
Does Shovlin know what’s going on?
Ajaxn
21st July 2024, 16:50
For the record.
In the Hungary race just ended, Hamilton qualified 5th, whilst Russell was out in Q1 in 17th.
Hamilton went on to finish the race in 3rd, with Russell finishing 8th.
George Russell was on the team radio to Mercedes to say “that was on me”