Lewis Hamilton has offered a level of insight as to why it is taking Mercedes so long to eradicate the weaknesses of its W14 and close the gap on runaway leaders Red Bull.
A change of developmental direction and the introduction of a considerable upgrade package temporarily propelled Mercedes into the best-of-the-rest position ahead of Aston Martin following that team’s remarkable start to the campaign.
Mercedes, however, has since been out-developed, notably by McLaren following the arrival of its own updates, whilst Ferrari has improved, although continues to battle the demons that reside within the SF-23.
Dismissing a claim of fluctuating form and that its recovery has waned, Hamilton said: “I don’t see it that way. I don’t feel like we’ve been going forwards and backward.
“I think we’ve been going slowly forwards but others have been moving forwards as well, and some people are taking bigger steps forward than us, but the positive thing is we are going forward, and we’re working away to make bigger steps.”
That bigger step, however, will not be at the level seen on the McLaren, adding: “Anything’s possible, but I don’t think we have a plan of that sort of leap in place at the moment.”
As to why, he remarked: “The thing we can’t see is the airflow throughout the car. That is just limited because when you look in the wind tunnel there’s only a certain amount you can move the car.
“There are simulations with the new rules that we have, [and] all the new tools we have had to create and understand the flow structures underneath the car.
“All the vortices would blow your mind if you saw what’s happening underneath the car, which is a lot different from the previous generations of cars.
“Working through that just takes time, and obviously, you’re very limited with resources as well, so you have to be careful which decisions you make.
“If you go full steam ahead in a direction, you could lose weeks of development and it could be tenths of performance, so they have to be very methodical in the way they go through that process. I wish it was faster but unfortunately, it’s not.”
As with any team, Hamilton concedes Mercedes has developments “in the pipeline”, and that the car on track at present will again be different further into the season, but as is always the case “it takes time to build things”.
Even with the technical department again under the stewardship of James Allison, Hamilton maintains progress is being made as swiftly as possible.
“James is great,” said the seven-time F1 champion. “We’ve a really good relationship. He knows when to be stern – he’s probably never actually soft, to be honest.
“We had a great meeting just the other day where we had all the heads of departments within the room, George (Russell) and I, and just making sure we’re on the same page.
“Great communication, and we have 100 percent faith in them, that as a group, as a whole, we will get to where we need to be. It’s just going to take some time.”
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