Upgrades 'won't fix Hamilton's cockpit complaints'

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that Mercedes' programme of updates for the W14 won't significantly address the complaints he's been making about the positioning of the cockpit in this year's car design.

Monaco saw the introduction of the first major package of changes for the Mercedes car this season, although it wasn't until last week in Barcelona that the team was able to get a proper sense of the level of improvement.

On the face of it, it was a distinct success with Hamilton finishing in second place to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, and his team mate George Russell joining them on the podium after outracing Ferrari and Aston Martin.

• Read also: Button explains why Hamilton cockpit position hurting confidence

But Hamilton admitted that the changes did little to tackle the complaints he had made earlier in the season before the Australian GP.

"If you look at the past, I’ve always enjoyed an oversteering car," he said at the time. "[But] we sit closer to the front wheels than all the other drivers.

"You feel like you’re sitting on the front wheels which is one of the worst feelings to feel when you’re driving a car," he explained. "It makes it harder to predict compared to when you're further back and sitting more centered."

“There’s nothing you can do about it, that’s just the way it is,” he said last week when asked for an update about the current situation with the cockpit positioning problems.

“The only things you can do is ultimately try to slow the rate of rotation, stabilise the rear end," he said. "That’s something you try and do on mechanical balance, but you’re just limited with the tools you have.

"It’s the same as last year," he added. "It’s been clear that when we dropped the car back on the ground at the first test it was basically the identical twin really to last year’s car except for the bouncing.

"Maybe the better-looking sister," he acknowledged. "But still with some of the very similar characteristics apart from the bouncing."

However away from the cockpit issues, Hamilton came away happy with the progress made by the latest upgrades now that he's got to try them out at a 'proper' circuit and not at an idiosyncratic street layout like Monaco.

"The new suspension was a real positive for me," he said. "It gave me a lot more confidence [in Monaco and Barcelona] so I’m hoping that translates to [future races].”

"I think we’ve taken note of where we are and where we’ve gone wrong, and now we’re slowly chipping away and trying to navigate our way back to the front. It’s just a long process, unfortunately.

“We now have the wider sidepods more in the direction of what the Red Bull is," he added, sounding less convinced about this aspect. "I mean it’s not been my decision to go that way.

"It’s the input that we’ve been having as a team, both George and I, over the past year," he explained. "It’s those constant conversations where we’re like, ‘Why does that look like that?’ and ‘Why does this look like this, have you tried that?'”

Hamilton has said that the 'on the nose' trait of the W14 is the key difference with its Red Bull counterpart.

“If you look at the Red Bulls, the places where they get on the power earlier and the speed they can take through the corners is just because they have a much stronger rear end," he said.

"We still have generally a very strong front and not as good a rear as we would hope to have."

But while the Mercedes might still lack the edge of the Red Bull, it seems that the new upgrades have closed the edge and allowed them to draw even with the Ferrari and Aston Martin.

The question remains whether this will be enough to allow them to break Red Bull's strange hold on the top step of the podium at any of the remaining 15 races of the season.

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