RaceFans Round-up: Car better in 2022 even with bouncing

In brief

Hamilton laments rough ride

Hamilton laboured to 10th place in Brazil, after which he said his Mercedes had “the bumpiest ride ever.”

“I’m sure we had worse bouncing in 2022,” he added, “but I think the car was better in 2022.”

The team has won three times this year, twice more than in 2022. However they appear to have lost their way with the car’s set-up since introducing a floor upgrade after the summer break.

Hamilton is unsure how much better his car’s ride will be in the coming races. “Qatar should be better in the sense it’s smooth,” he told the official F1 channel. “I don’t know about Vegas. Hopefully, Vegas won’t be as bad as here.”

Disqualification was unavoidable – Hulkenberg

Nico Hulkenberg said there was nothing he could do about the circumstances which led to his disqualification from the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Haas driver was shown the black flag after marshals pushed his car off a bump it became stuck on after he spun.

“I was beached, which was very unfortunate, after a low speed spin, which was my mistake,” he explained. “But then it’s quite unlucky to be beached like that. Normally you spin and you continue. So a small mistake with a huge consequence.”

Stroll suspects brake problem

Lance Stroll suspects a braking problem led to his spin on the formation lap during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

“It’s really strange,” said the Aston Martin driver. “As soon as I touched the brakes, I just had a huge rear lock and then I was a passenger from there.

“I’ve never felt that in a car so maybe there was a brake failure problem. We have to look into it.”

After his spin at Subida do Lago, Stroll reversed away from the barrier, then drove forwards and turned left onto the gravel trap, where his car became stuck.

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