Hamilton's And Russell's Recent Realization That Gave Them Boost Revealed By Shovlin
F1Monday, 19 August 2024 at 11:03
Mercedes's trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, discussed the recent mindset change that boosted Lewis Hamilton and George Russell.
Mercedes was one of the cars that struggled surprisingly too much at the start of the season despite significant changes in concept and innovative elements such as their unique front wing.
However, with their upgrade introduced in Canada, the German team seemed to have gained a couple of tenths, which moved them right into the battle for podiums and victories.
Since the introduction of this upgrade, Silver Arrows has scored a podium in every race—six podiums and three race wins. It is clear that Mercedes is now on a much better development trajectory.
However, Andrew Shovlin suggested that the drivers' performance might also have picked up a bit with increased motivation resulting from one realization. He said:
"I think the bigger one [change], with both of the drivers [Hamilton and Russell], is they've recently realized that if the tracks right, we've got a car that can win races, as we saw in Silverstone, and we've got a car that, for the last five races, has been fighting for podiums on merit."
"So that will always get them more excited about the opportunity, because drivers do it to win [and] to get podiums - that's what they enjoy."
This might have helped the seven-time World Champion in particular. In the first eight Grand Prix weekends of the season, he seemed to consistently struggle as he always tried to make up for the lack of performance with extreme setups- which might have heard him even more.
Ever since the upgrade in Canada, Hamilton suddenly started showing much more speed and became more consistent than his 26-year-old teammate.
In fact, the 39-year-old has been the most consistent driver in the last six Grand Prix races, scoring four podiums, two victories, and not finishing worse than P4.
It should also be noted that Russell's performance has picked up as well. He had one of the best races in his career during the final round before the summer break in Spa, where he scored his second victory of the season. However, he got disqualified later (which was not his fault).
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