F1 | Hamilton: “Great progress, we exploit the potential now”

It has been a while since a Lewis Hamilton was seen so radiant at the end of a Formula 1 practice session.

The free practice sessions of the Spanish Grand Prix gave us a competitive Mercedes, with the 7-time World Champion finishing third in the afternoon, behind the missile Charles Leclerc and teammate George Russell.

The fact is that the Casa della Stella has brought a deeply revised W13 to Barcelona and the updates seem to be giving the much sought-after performance that the silver pair had missed in the first events of the 2022 season.

“I am very happy with the progress made, so a huge thank you goes to everyone who works in the factory for not giving up and for keeping pushing,” commented Hamilton at the end of the day.

“We are not the fastest yet, but I think we are on the right path. It is the first time that we have not had so many jolts; a bit of porpoising has remained, but it is much better. In this way we can try to exploit the potential of the car “.

That said, the Briton is back for a moment with his feet on the ground because if there are positive results on his side, it is also true that the others have not stopped and that in any case Mercedes cannot be said to be ‘healed’ overnight.

“I admit it is still hard to drive the car well, but today it was a lot better than it has been in the other outings. I am really grateful to whoever provided us with these updates, but now we just have to try to fine-tune them in the next session. “.

“Tonight we will have a lot of data to analyze to try to place the car in the best possible way tomorrow, I think we will do it. In this way, we hope to be able to play with those in front of us.”

“The sidepods? I don’t know if we will continue to use them, we still have to decide. It’s interesting to see that the others have chosen a different path.”

“It would be interesting to find out if things are better for them or not. But we still have improvements to make and so we focus on that.”

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG

Photo by: FIA Pool

Finally Hamilton also launches a small alarm on the tires, which seem to be suffering a lot from the deterioration in the Catalan heat.

“It’s hot and the tires are in trouble, but I would say that the problem of overheating is a general issue this year. I don’t know why this is so, maybe it’s the type of production that Pirelli has, but I think everyone is on the same boat”.

“With these temperatures, however, you can’t always attack, but you have to manage a lot, even more than what you did in the past; I think the tires last less. But it’s no surprise, we knew it would be like this this year. “.