Hamilton qualified only seventh for the Japanese GP, 0.569s off poleman Max Verstappen but just 0.084s shy of the fourth-placed Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Despite the disappointing grid position, the seven-time world champion insists the past two days have given him a clearer idea of what direction his team needs to take.
He says he’s had to make minimal changes to his W15 over the Japanese GP weekend, and has not been trying “random things”.
“It’s been a night and day different weekend so far, just in terms of how comfortable I felt in the car,” he said, when asked by Autosport about his comfort factor with the car.
“We did a really good job over this past week, just the analysis everyone’s done at the factory to try and understand how we can get the car in a sweeter spot. The car has been much nicer to drive this weekend.
“Particularly on a track like this, where you need a nice balance, this is the nicest it’s felt over the last three years. Last year, we were over a second off, we were seven-tenths today.
“But also this weekend, I’m not trying all these different random things. So I’ve been just much more focused on making sensible changes. I think it’s worked. I was hoping we would be further ahead. But unfortunate.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG F1 Team
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Hamilton was particularly pleased by the performance of the W15 in the twisty first sector of the track, where change of direction is key.
“[It was] hugely encouraging,” he said. “Sector 1 is the best first sector of any circuit. It’s absolutely incredible when the car is where you want it to be, and I can feel exactly where the car is weak.
“This is the perfect test track, it exposes always the limitations of a car, and where you need to improve it.
“I know when I go and speak to my engineers now where I need to pinpoint what they got to work on. It’s going to take some time.”
Hamilton insisted the car didn’t slip out of its sweet spot during qualifying despite a frustrating Q3 session.
“The car felt good,” he said. “The last lap I already felt when I went to Turn 1 I had a bit of oversteer on the way in, so I knew already it was not going to be spectacular.
“I was already a tenth down out of Turn 2. I know why that is, but there’s not much more left. I pretty much got everything out of the car. We just need to add performance to it.”
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W15
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