For a driver with 104 pole positions to his name, it seems almost paradoxical to say that qualifying is one of Lewis Hamilton’s problems, but this year the seven-time world champion has not yet been able to find consistency on a flying lap, finding himself behind teammate George Russell on most occasions.
An aspect that has often penalized the British driver, especially because, starting from behind, his long-distance performances have sometimes been compromised by the fact of finding himself in traffic. More generally, however, according to Mercedes, these difficulties in finding the time in qualifying are also linked to the current generation of ground effect cars, which do not adapt as well to certain characteristics of Hamilton’s style as those used up to 2021.
For this reason, both the Star and the Englishman are looking for some corrections that will allow them to extract something more on the dry lap, where Russell has had the upper hand this year except on two occasions, China and Spain. It is no mystery that, even in Williams, Russell was considered one of the most competitive drivers on the dry lap, so much so that he was called “Mr. Saturday”, but compared to the first year together, the trend in qualifying is increasingly moving in his favor.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“Russell has always set the bar very high in terms of qualifying performance. As soon as he came into F1, he impressed. He had some very impressive qualifying sessions with Williams too. So we know he is very quick,” explained Mercedes’ track operations manager Andrew Shovlin, before adding that Hamilton has on many occasions struggled to get the most out of these ground-effect cars.
“Lewis made no secret of the fact that Saturday was his difficult day. He has had problems with this generation of car, which doesn’t suit his style. He has worked on his driving. But we have worked a lot to try to make the car quicker. Of course, it hasn’t been quick enough, but the focus has also been on improving the balance and handling, so as to give the drivers a car they can attack the lap with on Saturday.”
While Russell has still managed to qualify ahead of his teammate in recent races, Shovlin believes Hamilton has made progress: “We have made progress. Recently, George has beaten Lewis in terms of qualifying, but by quite thin margins. So it’s good for the team that Lewis is back closer in qualifying. But we will continue to work on that and I’m sure we will see more pole positions from him.”
Trying to illustrate the difficulties encountered by the seven-time world champion in the search for a single lap time, Shovlin explained that it seems to be linked above all to the corner entry phase, where Hamilton struggled to find the right confidence. Looking back over the last three years of the Star, it is no mystery that the cars designed in Brackley have suffered a lot from porpoising, an aspect that not only penalised on the straight with these noticeable bounces, but also on the corner entry, with the risk of suddenly losing grip and, consequently, also the rear.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
One of the prerogatives requested by Hamilton to improve the car, in fact, was precisely greater stability of the rear, so much so that this year several elements have been revised to move the load and improve the consistency of the rear, which however has induced, also thanks to the new front wing, an annoying understeer at the front. Only in the last appointments, thanks also to several technical innovations, the W15 seems to have found a better balance.
Shovlin explained Hamilton’s difficulties by linking them to the corner entry phase: “Lewis has suffered in particular in qualifying with these cars, but he has always done well over the long distance. And this has been very useful. It’s more about the way he wants to attack a corner. When he tries to drive in a certain way, the car snaps into oversteer and this causes the tyre temperatures to rise”.
“So a lot of our work was to try to give him a car that allowed him to drive very aggressively, to extract lap time without it catching him off guard going into corners.”
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