Lewis Hamilton reckons Mercedes is “a lot closer” to fighting back at the front of the Formula 1 pack after Friday practice at Imola.
Mercedes introduced revisions to the floor of the W15 machine for this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the second stage of an upgrade package introduced at the last round in Miami.
So far, the Mercedes is performing well in Italy and Hamilton ended Friday by posting the fourth fastest time in FP2, just under four-tenths adrift of Charles Leclerc.
“It’s been a good start to the weekend,” Hamilton said. “We had a productive day and were able to run all three compounds.
“The balance of the car felt good, and I had a positive feeling out there.
“Several other teams look quick, in particular McLaren and Ferrari, but we’re a lot closer than we have been so far this season.
“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves though, so let’s see how tomorrow goes.”
Given Mercedes’ deficit to the likes of Red Bull, Ferrari and even McLaren so far in 2024, the effort to get within touching distance of the leading pack is monumental.
Hamilton acknowledged the efforts of the Mercedes team back at Brackley for their efforts to bring the eight-time Constructors’ champions back toward the front.
“I am really grateful to everyone back at the factory for working so hard to bring these updates,” he added.
“We are seeing improvements in the car and our performance on track.”
Saturday will show whether Mercedes has truly made progress or whether Friday’s promising pace is just an outlier.
Either way, despite the positive step made by the team, Trackside Engineering Director Andre Shovlin acknowledged Mercedes’ hopes to incrementally improve throughout the course of the season.
“The car has been working well across the two sessions and we have been able to improve on the balance over the course of the day,” Shovlin addressed.
“The updates we have here all seem to be doing what we expect, which is encouraging.
“But the experience of the last few races has taught us that we have a fair size gap to close.
“We are hoping to close that gap progressively with developments over the next few events.
“There’s still plenty that we can work on for both single lap and long-run performance in the meantime.
“The gaps ahead aren’t that big so we’ll be looking hard to find a bit of additional speed overnight.”
