Lewis Hamilton believes he now knows the weaknesses Mercedes must improve on its W15 Formula 1 car amid an “encouraging” qualifying at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Despite optimism that its revised 2024 charger had dialled out the recalcitrant characteristics of its predecessor, Mercedes has endured a tough opening to the season.
Hamilton, who has scored eight points from the first three races, has been left bemused with the narrow operating range of the car contributing to unpredictable swings.
But having been enthused with the W15’s handling in practice at Suzuka, Hamilton out-qualified George Russell for the first time in 2024 as he secured seventh on the grid.
The Briton, who exited in Q2 in Melbourne a fortnight ago, reckons that his improved run over a single lap derived from not trialling extreme set-up avenues this weekend.
“Yeah, it’s been a night and day different weekend so far just in terms of how comfortable I feel in the car,” Hamilton reflected.
“I think we did a really good job over this past week, the analysis everyone has done at the factory how we can get the car in the sweet spot, the car’s been much nicer to drive this weekend, especially at a track like this where you need a nice balance, this is the nicest it’s felt over the last three years.
“I think last year we were over a second off, I think seven-tenths today, and I’m not like trying all these random different things.
“So just focused on making sensible changes, and I think it’s worked. I was hoping we’d be further ahead.”
Asked about the last time he made minimal changes in a weekend, he replied: “Some time last year. Can’t remember where. Just this car, it only likes to work in this little section.”
Hamilton is convinced his one-tenth improvement between Q2 and the pole position shootout is demonstrative that he couldn’t have extracted more from the package.
“Car felt good. I think the last lap I already felt when I went into Turn 1 I had a bit of oversteer on the way in, knew already it was not going to be spectacular,” he revealed.
“I was already a tenth down out of Turn 2, I think I know why that is, there’s not much more left, I pretty much got everything out of the car, we just need to add performance to it.”
Hamilton expressed surprise over the radio when he was informed about his five-tenth gap to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who claimed a fourth successive pole position.
“The lap felt really good, I was hopeful, I thought the lap was really, really good, but it’s to be expected, the [gap to] Red Bull,” he added.
The sweeps that make up the opening sector at Suzuka proved to be an Achilles’ heel for Mercedes last season and it was touted to struggle there again this weekend.
However, the German marque proved to be more competitive than predicted, with Hamilton upbeat that he could receive an accurate gauge of the W15’s shortcomings.
“Hugely, hugely encouraging,” he reiterated. “Sector one is the best first sector of any circuit, and it’s absolutely incredible when the car is where you want it to be.
“And I can feel exactly where the car is weak, so this is the perfect test track, it exposes always the limitations of the car, and where you need to improve it.
“I know when I go to speak with my engineers now where I need to pinpoint what they’re going to work on, going to take some time.”
