F1 News
Hamilton still not comfortable with 2019 car
Jake Williams-Smith
Lewis Hamilton says he still has work to do with setting up the new Mercedes W10 despite winning three out of five races this season.
The reigning champion retook the lead of the 2019 championship with a victory and the fastest lap at the Spanish Grand Prix but the Briton insists he still isn't fully comfortable with the car.
The qualifying battle between himself and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas might indicate that he does indeed have work to do, surprisingly behind his Finnish teammate in arguably his strongest area.
Ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton said he would be spending time back at the Mercedes factory hoping to iron out any issues ahead of a vital qualifying session.
“The cars are pretty much set-up the same. I drive the tyres slightly differently in the race. Often I’m able to eke them out a little bit longer. That currently is still a benefit," he told RaceFans.
“The car is obviously great but I’ve generally struggled with the car from Australia, [I’m] having similar kind of problems with the car since Australia. My qualifying in Australia was just OK, I was only a tenth ahead. When I get things right it should be different to that.
“But there are definitely areas I will continue to focus on in the factory this week. I’ll be dialling in to try to really understand. And ultimately I’ll go around and talk to different departments engineering-wise and try to collate as much data as possible so I can apply it better in the next race.
“Fridays and Saturdays have not been great days for me. The goal is to improve on them. But the races have been very strong performance-wise and pure delivery on a Sunday I’ve been really happy with.”
