Lewis Hamilton has found it harder to perform at his best in qualifying since Formula 1 introduced the current technical regulations, Mercedes’ trackside engineering director believes.
The seven-times world champion holds the record for most pole positions with 104. But he has only set one since F1 introduced its current generation of technical regulations in 2022.
He has trailed team mate George Russell in qualifying so far this year. Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said this is partly because the current generation of cars, with their powerful ground effect aerodynamics, does not suit his style as well as those used until 2021.
“George has always set a very high bar in qualifying,” said Shovlin. “As soon as he was in F1, he was impressing. Even in the Williams, he was doing some pretty impressive qualifying sessions. So we know that he’s very quick.
“Lewis hasn’t disguised the fact that Saturdays were his tough day. He’s struggled with this whole generation of car, really, not suiting his style. He’s been working on how he drives.”
Having won eight consecutive constructors’ championship prior to 2022, Mercedes have spent much of the last two-and-a-half years not on the pace of the front-running teams, which has added to their problems.
“We had a huge amount of work trying to get the car to be quicker – it just hasn’t been quick enough – but also with a handling balance that the drivers can actually attack the lap on Saturday.
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“We’ve made progress. Recently, George has outqualified Lewis by some fairly fine margins. So it’s great for the team that Lewis is back up there and he’ll be pushing on. But we’ll keep working on that and I’m sure that we’ll see hopefully some more Lewis pole positions as well.”
Hamilton ended a two-and-a-half year victory drought in the last race. Shovlin says his race pace remains a strength, but his attacking style in qualifying has tended to overheat the rear tyres.
“It’s particularly [that] he struggled on the single lap,” Shovlin explained. “So his long run pace is always there and that’s been really useful.
“It’s more just the way that he wants to attack a corner, when you do that, then the car would snap to oversteer. You start to build tyre temperature.
“So most of our work has been trying to give him a car that you can drive the very attacking style, extract the lap time out of…
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