Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton blames himself for his performance in the second race of the 2023 Formula 1 season in Saudi Arabia.
“I set the car up wrong for qualifying and the set-up wasn’t good in the race either.” So he had to fight. And in the end there is fifth place, where his Mercedes teammate George Russell achieved third place.
Hamilton says nothing about exactly what Hamilton did differently than Russell. Looking back, he only speaks of a “difficult decision” in the technical orientation of his W14 vehicle and says there was a “50:50 chance” of success, although it was “rather likely” to “make the wrong decision “Hamilton said.
His set-up gave him “a lot of understeer” and “pace problems” right from the first stint, he explains. “It was better in the second stint.”
Safety car thwarts Hamilton’s race plan
The conditions were unfavorable for Hamilton: Because he had started on Hard, he would have needed a long first stint, but the safety car came out on lap 18. “I had to pit,” he explains. “We just managed to get the medium tire working but it was a long second stint.”
In the end he saw the finish line a good five seconds behind team-mate Russell and a hair’s breadth behind Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin, who ended up between the two Mercedes drivers due to a subsequent time penalty – in the end 0.337 seconds ahead of Hamilton.
Hamilton sees the positives at the weekend in Jeddah
But Hamilton does not grieve. After a “difficult qualifying session” in which he was classified four tenths and four places behind Russell, it turned out to be a “positive” Sunday. “I picked up a few points and George got a great result with P3. Overall these are good points for the team,” he said.
Hamilton also sounds satisfied as he continues: “We didn’t have the same tire degradation as in Bahrain. We were a lot closer to some of the drivers ahead of us and it’s great to be in the top five ahead of both Ferrari drivers .”
However, the “many positives” should not hide the fact that Mercedes also has “a lot” “we have to work on,” Hamilton continued. He makes it clear: “I don’t have confidence in the car in the race either, but I try to deal with it as best I can. In the racing stint, it is at least much easier to control and also more predictable.”
Toto Wolff: Drivers are “the most important sensors”
Nevertheless, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff has listened to Hamilton’s statements. He speaks of a “fundamental problem” with the vehicle, with which Hamilton is “not satisfied”. “It has to do with how he feels the rear of the vehicle,” says Wolff. “But that’s not something that can be fixed quickly.”
However, it is crucial in this phase of the Formula 1 season to follow up every clue. “The drivers are our most important sensors in the car. And if they tell us what they feel, then we have to consider that,” says Wolff.
In general, it is difficult for Mercedes drivers to get the W14 into the “right window”, as Andrew Shovlin describes it as the senior engineer at the racetrack. And: “It’s not as easy for the drivers as it should be.”
After all, his team has already taken initial measures based on the findings from Bahrain and is “encouraged” by the results. “We certainly found a better balance and the car handled the tires much more gently. That motivates us,” says Shovlin. “But we’re under no illusions that we still have a lot of work ahead of us.”