Lewis Hamilton says the latest updates implanted by Mercedes on its W14 car have finally given him the confidence “to throw it into the corners”.
Hamilton enjoyed last weekend in the US Grand Prix his best performance of the year, the seven-time world champion finishing just 2.2 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen at the Circuit of the Americas.
Unfortunately, the Britain was excluded from the event’s final results due to the excessive wear of the floor plank on his Mercedes, an issue caused by COTA’s bumpy surface and the car’s imperfect settings.
But the gains registered by the Brackley squad in Austin thanks to its final upgrade of the season, which included a new floor body, certainly buoyed Hamilton and his crews.
“I think the step that we were able to take this weekend has given me a little bit more confidence in the car to throw it into the corners. So yeah, it was positive,” he said.
“I really enjoyed driving around this track. There are still some of the fundamental issues that we’re having with the car, which won’t change until next year.
“But it was really positive as I said to feel that step that we’ve taken. Maybe it was only a tenth upgrade, for example. But there’s at least a tenth of confidence for example that it gave me. So it’s quite interesting, what you see when you have a double knock-on effect.”
©Mercedes
While encouraged by Mercedes’ step forward, Hamilton reminded himself that progress in the back-half of 2022, which led to George Russell’s dominant win in the penultimate round in Brazil, was followed a few months later by a challenging start to its 2023 campaign.
Hamilton is keen on Mercedes avoiding such a scenario, and he believes that it will based on last weekend’s advances.
“Well, look, we had Brazil last year, all of a sudden we were, I don’t know, we were competitive, and then towards the end again, I think we developed really well and we weren’t necessarily the quickest but we were closer at the end of the year,” he noted.
“But yeah. I think this is definitely the most positive I’ve felt this year, but in general it’s not been a terrible year.
“Just knowing the work that’s happening and being in constant contact with the head of aero and the team back, I feel like everyone is really on their toes and really ready to go.
“There’s lots of things we can improve on in terms of processes, all of us. But I’m excited. I definitely believe we’re going in the right direction.”
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