A drastic set-up change on Lewis Hamilton’s car “backfired”, the team admitted, after he set the second-slowest time in Friday’s second practice session.
Hamilton ended the hour of running 18th on the times sheets, one-and-a-half seconds slower than pace-setter Charles Leclerc and eight-tenths of a second off George Russell in the other Mercedes. He only lapped quicker than Kevin Magnussen’s Haas, as Williams driver Alexander Albon did not take part in the session.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said they “experimented” with different set-ups on their two cars “but we haven’t unlocked performance.”
“In the second session [we’ve] gone through a really quite dramatic set-up change on Lewis’ [car] and that has massively backfired,” he told Sky. “But this is why we’re having those sessions.
“On the other side it was a bit better, but we were lacking performance. I think on a single lap if he finished that lap we’re a bit better but overall it wasn’t a good day.”
Mercedes has endured a poor run of results since the current technical regulations were introduced in 2022. The team’s latest F1 car is a significant departure from its predecessors.
Although it has shown signs of promise, notably when its drivers headed the times in second practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the team has not been able to sustain it over a race weekend so far.
They lie fourth in the constructors championship after the first two rounds and Wolff admitted he is dissatisfied with their progress so far.
“If I would say that I’m not frustrated, it would be not the truth,” he said. “Certainly we are because we’re trying so much in all directions but don’t seem to have found that silver bullet yet which helps us to get us in the right direction.
“But we’ve got to keep trying. We’ve seen the performance of this car before. I just don’t want to go back and say we’re just not good in these regulations because we have everything we need in order to get on top of that. And we will.”
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