Hamilton more committed than ever but: 'Car difficult to set up this year'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
In Austin and Mexico, it seemed that Mercedes didn't get the car right, but at the Grands Prix of Brazil and Qatar, Lewis Hamilton came back stronger than ever. Mercedes has had problems with setting up the car all season, but the team seems to have solved this recently according to Lewis Hamilton.
"I've generally been very happy with my commitment and my performance. I would say I've been more committed than I've ever been. What I've noticed this year is that the car has been very, very hard to set up," Lewis Hamilton tells the BBC.
Toto Wolff referred to the Mercedes as a "diva" earlier this season, as the team struggled to get the most out of the car. Hamilton confirmed Wolff's statements. In the season against Ferrari in 2017, Mercedes suffered from the same problem.
Only had the right set-up a few times
"This one is a monster of a diva. It's been harder to get the car in the right [set-up] window. And when you don't get the car in the right window, you just limit your potential. So I'm just not able to maximise my ability through the set-up not being in the right place, and it's been very, very hard to get it into the right place", the seven-time world champion continues.
In Brazil, Hamilton drove a great race after a disqualification and a grid penalty on Sunday. " I got the car exactly where I wanted. And that was like literally hitting the nail on the head. But we've done that maybe once or twice this year. Most of the time, we're not optimising it," says the Brit.