Hamilton Still Feeling 'More Optimistic' About W15: 'It's Not Over Yet'

Thursday, 04 April 2024 at 22:30

The seven-time World Champion asserted he still feels "more optimistic" about Mercedes's W15, with which he has struggled since the beginning of the season.

The start of the 2024 season and the performance of the car have been like a rollercoaster for the Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton so far.

It seems that Mercedes can't properly set up their cars, and they behave completely differently under changing conditions, more than the German team would like.

This results in flashes of great performance, which we have seen in multiple free practice sessions, but the conditions just weren't right for the team during any of the qualifying sessions or races so far.

The 39-year-old driver was asked ahead of the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit why he thought Mercedes struggled to master the current set of regulations, and he responded:

"Well, we just haven't yet – it's not over yet. But I think with this sport, I think it's just naturally difficult. If you start on the right foot and, you know, if your first brick down has got a good foundation, you can just continue to build on it – and I think that's what we had experienced in the past years."

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"Whereas when we started with this generation of car, we started with five bricks, good weight, we had to knock it down and try again, knock it down, try it again and take off that performance basically."

While his results show something different, the seven-time World Champion believes this is Mercedes's best car under the current regulations so far.

"I definitely do feel more optimistic about this car, yeah. Obviously, the first couple of races, there's been small showings of the car feeling great and we have pace for a moment, and then it kind of disappears."

"So there's definitely performance there, we just need to work on making this car more consistent and easier to drive."

Mercedes' team principal, Toto Wolff, said in the preview of the fourth round of the 2024 season that his team focused on making the car more consistent after the most recent race. We will find out later this weekend whether his team's labor brought some fruit.