Hamilton reveals what he needs to improve to battle for victories
Photo: Race Pictures
Kada Sárközi joined GPblog as an editor ahead of the 2023 Formula 1 season. He graduated with a BA in Sports Journalism in the UK and has covered Grands Prix and other F1 events live.
Lewis Hamilton just missed out on a podium at the United States Grand Prix. Looking ahead, the seven-time world champion explained that he had gathered a lot of valuable information at the Circuit of the Americas.
Hamilton was chasing down Max Verstappen in a bid to finish on the podium behind Kimi Antonelli and Charles Leclerc last Sunday. However, an extended VSC period caused by Valtteri Bottas' Cadillac stopping on track meant he was unable to catch the Dutchman.
Looking back at the race, he said: "Yeah, I mean, I chose to have two medium tyres because we didn't think the hard tyre was going to be any good. In hindsight, it would've been two hard tyres would've been the better one. The hard tyre was the best tyre. And then it meant I started on a used soft, which is from used to new, it's two seconds of race time.
"And it affects the start as well compared to others that are on the new. All the cars ahead of the new, but I had a really good start. Nearly got to third place or whatever it was, but Charles was on the outside, and I didn't get to capitalize on that."
Photo: Race Pictures
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Plenty of positives to take from COTA for Hamilton
The Ferrari driver identified what he needs to improve to fight for victories in the coming rounds. He continued: "Otherwise, as I said, there's lots of positives to take from it. I think lots of learnings. I think for the next races, if I can really get on top of this balance issue that I have, I think we can get much better results.
"I think if I had the balance that I need, even if I just had the balancing of the last stint, I would have been I would have right in the fight all the way to the end. But I think even then, another step from there, I think we could have probably qualified better. So some good pointers," Hamilton concluded.
Hamilton rues missing out on Verstappen battle
The Briton was also disappointed to miss out on a battle with Verstappen during the final laps. He added: "I would've loved to have a little bit of a battle with Max, maybe during the last couple of laps. So, yeah, that would've been awesome."
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