Hamilton ready 'to sit down with car designers' about what MUST NOT make next year's car

20:21, 06 Jul

Updated: 22:52, 06 Jul

byTobia Elia

Lewis Hamilton reflected on his British Grand Prix, a chaotic race in mixed conditions that saw him come close to the podium in front of his home crowd.

After a weekend in which he looked very competitive right up until his final Q3 attempt, Lewis Hamilton returns home from his home Grand Prix bitterly disappointed at not managing to make the podium in front of his fans.

Starting from fifth on the grid, it quickly became clear that the SF25, which had impressed in dry conditions, didn’t have the same pace in the wet. The two McLarens immediately pulled away, while a strategy that surprisingly favored Nico Hulkenberg’s Sauber helped him secure his first historic podium.

In the final laps on the dry, the seven-time world champion tried to close the gap to the German, but a mistake cost him a lot of time, and with the remaining laps, there was no longer enough time left to mount a podium challenge.

Lewis Hamilton after British GP Qualifying

A 'difficult day' for Hamilton

When asked to analyze his race, Hamilton commented: ''Difficult day, I think for everybody. It's not the result that I was hoping for, but that's important stuff.''

''I was putting on a lot of pressure. I had a chance on Lando (Norris) into turn 15. After that I just struggled to keep up, the tyres dropped off massively.''

''The car was unbelievably tricky to drive. I think ultimately I learned a lot today, there's lots to take from the day. It's only my second time driving in the wet in this car and I can't even express to you how hard it is.''

''It's not a car that likes those conditions. Having lots of data to take from this, I might just sit down with the people that are designing the car for next year. Because there's elements of this car that cannot transfer and go into the following year. I'm really looking forward to it.''

When asked if the car felt slightly better to drive once the track dried towards the end, Hamilton added: ''Not particularly. I mean a little bit more. When it was fully dry at the end this obviously we got lots of grip, but even then I went wide and then snapped and spun at turn 11. Lots of mistakes today.''

''I'm not driving that terribly but of course want to continue to improve. Qualifying was looking better yesterday and I think we just continue to build on that. I'm really hoping for some improvements moving forward. We've got this two week break now, you're going to spend a lot of time in the factory soon.''

When finally asked which areas he would like to see improvements in, Hamilton concluded: ''Probably a consistent balance, a car that turns in a low speed. And just a more stable car. But I think we were looking great through this weekend. Still weren't able to fully extract everything in qualifying, and then the race was a little bit harder. So that's where I want to get stronger.''