The good performances seen in Barcelona, with the third place conquered by George Russell and the fifth, comeback, obtained by Lewis Hamilton had perhaps deluded the leaders of Mercedes that a new championship would start from Spain.
Once in Monaco, however, both the seven-time world champion and the new signing of the Brackley team found themselves grappling with the usual problems. The Mercedes W13 did not marry perfectly with the asphalt of the Principality track and above all Hamilton complained of a bad driveability of the car due to the continuous hopping.
In this case, however, it was not the usual porpoising that ruined Lewis’ Friday, but the rigidity of the car that prompted the seven-time world champion to complain continuously over the radio during FP1.
“It’s the bumpiest track I’ve ever driven on,” Hamilton said at the end of the day. “Our car hops a lot, but it’s a different rebound than we had in the past and it also happens at low speed, so it’s not just a question of aerodynamics. It’s worse than riding a roller coaster. I think the roughness of the track worsens the situation. I don’t remember ever having experienced such an experience before ”.
Both in FP1 and FP2 Hamilton struggled to find the feeling with his car and in both sessions he always finished behind George Russell. In the morning Lewis got his tenth time in 1’15”499, while in the afternoon, also thanks to the heavy traffic found on several occasions, he couldn’t do better than the twelfth time in 1’14”267.
“Putting the tour together is difficult. We have work to do overnight to fix this. I didn’t think we would be as fast as Ferrari and Red Bull, but at the moment we have to concentrate to stay ahead of the McLarens ”.
“I haven’t had a chance to put together some fantastic laps. The first sector is good, the second was almost in place, while the third was missing. We have to try to understand how to improve the car on bumps and I hope for a different day tomorrow ”.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
George Russell was also on the same wavelength. The 2018 Formula 2 champion, however, managed to achieve better performance than Hamilton, confirming a superior ability to adapt to an always grumpy W13.
“These cars are very, very stiff and on such a bumpy roadway it’s not easy to push them to the limit. This is the greatest difficulty ”said Russell at the end of the second free practice session, which ended with the sixth fastest time in 1’13”406.
“We have seen Ferrari flourish again, we have seen how good they have been to tackle the curbs and this is their game at the moment. We have a lot of work to do overnight. I’m not sure we’ll be able to close this gap ”.
George then explained how the excessive stiffness of the Mercedes creates significant problems for both drivers of the Brackley team.
“You have to drive differently because the car continually hits the bottom. There are sections where both tires are off the ground. In turn 5 the right front is in the air and is so stiff that the left front also rises. I don’t know what more we can do. The guys are doing everything possible to make things easier for us pilots ”.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes W13, George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
“Anyway it was a relatively good day, even if we want to be the best of the others. I got the sixth position behind a McLaren. I believe that this weekend our value is behind Ferrari and Red Bull, but we have to make sure that Lando doesn’t get it ”.
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