Lewis Hamilton's worrying admission over setup disparity with George Russell

Lewis Hamilton has made a worrying admission that both he and George Russell have diverging set-up directions that make it tough to reach a consensus.

The German team did not have the best first day of running in Silverstone, as both drivers struggled to put together lap times that were even within a second of the benchmark.

Both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were more than a second off the lap time set by Red Bull's Max Verstappen, as the car did not look competitive in a qualifying simulation.

In what was a seemingly worrying admission afterward by Hamilton, the Mercedes driver admitted that both he and Russell tend to have different approaches for car setup which makes it tough to reach a consensus over what is the best path forward for the team.

Lewis Hamilton was quoted as saying by PlanetF1:

"Me and George were just talking about it, he’s one way, he’s like over here with his set-up, I’m over here, and he was like ‘I’m thinking of coming to where you are but then your lap times are slower’, and I’m thinking ‘I was going to come to where you are. But, I think as I said, it’s a balance. We’ll try and work on it tonight and Mick [Schumacher] will do some work in the sim tonight."

He added:

"So hopefully we’ll come up with something tomorrow. If Hamilton was to somehow pull off a ninth Silverstone victory come Sunday, then it would set a new record for most wins at a specific F1 circuit.

Lewis Hamilton feels the car was better over a long run compared to a single lap

Looking back at the running on Friday, Lewis Hamilton admitted that Mercedes was arguably better and more consistent over the long run. The team showed a very impressive long-run pace, and the British driver was taking solace from that.

“Car wise, I mean, we’re battling the same thing the majority of the time. It’s a tough car to drive and no matter what we do to set-up, it continues to be a tough car to drive," Hamilton said.

"I think on a single lap, I didn’t feel any improvement between tires, which shows us something is wrong, we’re missing something. And then in the long run, it didn’t seem to be too bad, so that’s the positive at least," he added.

Hamilton has scored two podiums in the last three races and will be hoping to get another one in the bag in the team's home race.