Lewis Hamilton puzzled as Mercedes dig highlights worrying issue for Toto Wolff
Lewis Hamilton has criticised the unpredictability of the W14 after a difficult start to the weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday. The seven-time world champion struggled to find his rhythm during the first two sessions in Mexico City.
Hamilton was only 11th on the timing tower when the chequered flag waved at the end of FP1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday, improving slightly to finish in P7 at the end of FP2.
The Silver Arrows will be keen to secure a solid result with both cars on Sunday after Hamilton followed up his first-lap collision and subsequent DNF in Qatar with a disqualification for a technical regulation infringement at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after Friday’s running, Hamilton said: “The car is night and day different compared to last week. I don’t really know what to say. You just never know what you’re going to get with this one. Some days she’s great and some days she’s not.”
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He later added: “So we’re going to work on it overnight but it definitely wasn’t a fun day compared to P1 in Austin. We were a bit off but hopefully overnight we can find something and tomorrow maybe the car will be nicer to drive.”
This will be a concerning start to the weekend for Mercedes after team-mate George Russell predicted ahead of Friday’s track time that the Mexican GP circuit will suit the W14’s strengths and that they would show improved pace from their trip to Austin.
Hamilton went on to highlight the inconsistent performance of the W14 when asked if the team would improve heading into qualifying on Saturday. He replied: “Not sure. Again, you just never know what to expect with this car. Maybe we’ll make the changes and we’ll pick that pace up.
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“I think there was definitely some performance in there to be closer to maybe [being] in the top three but we’ve got to figure out [how] to make it easier for us to extract that performance. So that’s what we’ll work on.”
Team-mate Russell was also left disappointed, explaining: “It’s frustrating in the moment to have a negative car and not the best of days but through those difficult moments you probably learn more than when the car is in a better place.”
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