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Lewis Hamilton claims the difference in his Mercedes W13 from Bahrain is not as drastic as fans would have liked heading into the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Briton secured an unexpected podium in the season opener last weekend despite being off the pace.
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Hamilton has confirmed that his team has not 'unlocked' the secret to a competitive car ahead of the second edition of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Briton managed to sneak his Mercedes W13 into the podium places in the season opener partly due to a double-DNF from Red Bull. Fans were hoping the German team would be able to bring in significant part changes to Jeddah, where the seven-time world champion won in 2021.
Speaking about the lack of drastic performance changes, Lewis Hamilton said:
“Huge amount of work has gone on in the past three days. Very proud of my team for just keeping their heads down and staying focused. Turning through the crazy amount of data that we have basically every time we get into the car. And just trying to understand the issue that we have. We are aware of the problems we have, but in terms of what is causing it [Trying to find]. There’s not a huge difference here this weekend but hopefully we will have some things to try.”
Lewis Hamilton's straight-line speed was due to rear-wing setup, not engine output, says Mercedes CTO
Mercedes CTO James Allison claims that his team's shortcomings in Bahrain were due to aerodynamic choices made by engineers rather than an issue with engine output. The team had to make sacrifices at straight-line speed due to the porpoising problem which has plagued their cars since pre-season testing in Barcelona. The Silver Arrows have now trimmed their rear wings ahead of the Grand Prix weekend.
Speaking about the matter, Allison said:
“I think most of that is coming from the size of our rear wing. If you look at the cars coming down the straights one after the other and just look at the frontal area of the rear wings that each team has, you will see that we were running the biggest rear wing. Rear wings are a large factor in how much drag the car has, and the amount of drag a car has is a large factor in what the end-of-straight speed of the car will be.”
Lewis Hamilton placed ninth in the first practice session of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, more than 1.5 seconds behind leader Charles Leclerc. The team, however, might be running a variety of setup simulations so fans can continue to hold their breath until qualifying on Saturday evening.
