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Lewis Hamilton believes this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix is the perfect track for Mercedes to find out where they stand after recent car upgrades.
Lewis Hamilton believes this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix is the perfect track for Mercedes to find out where they stand after recent car upgrades.
Lewis Hamilton has admitted Mercedes’ upgrades have not provided the improvement they “dreamed of” ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.
Mercedes brought a big upgrade to Monaco last weekend, including a new floor, sidepods and suspension. Due to the characteristics of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Mercedes expect to get a better read of their developments this weekend.
Hamilton has finished on the podium once this year, at the Australian Grand Prix, while team-mate George Russell is yet to finish in the top three.
“When you bring upgrades, naturally you should be progressing forward,” explained Hamilton. “The fact is it’s an improvement, it’s just not the improvement that we have dreamed of. But it’s one step at a time.
“I don’t feel any negativity towards it. I’m grateful we have it. The hard bit is I understand how much work has gone into making these parts.
“The amount of work – everyone’s really flat out and hungry to move the car in the right direction – so I would say that I’m just hopeful that it puts us on a better track that can progress from here on.”
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Asked about the development direction Mercedes have taken, Hamilton answered: “It’s those constant conversations where you’re like ‘what does that look like that and we look like this, have we tried that?’.
“We now have the wider sidepod more in the direction of the what the Red Bull is. It’s not been my decision to go that way.
“I think it’s been clear when we dropped the car back on the ground at the first test, it’s basically the identical twin to last year’s car, except for the bouncing, but with some of the similar characteristics of how it drives, apart from the bouncing.
“But I think we have taken note of where we are and where we have gone wrong, and now we are just slowly chipping away and trying to navigate all the way back to the front. It’s just a long process unfortunately.”
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Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix we take a look back at some of the most dramatic moments from previous races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Russell hopes Mercedes can jump Ferrari
Mercedes are 29 points ahead of Ferrari in the constructors’ championship but have been slower overall in Qualifying and have executed their races better on Sundays.
Ferrari have taken the only non-Red Bull pole position this year, courtesy of Charles Leclerc’s impressive Q3 lap in Baku.
George Russell hopes Mercedes can jump Ferrari at this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix as both teams target an improvement in pace.
Charles Leclerc and George Russell both hope they can move closer to the front at the Spanish Grand Prix
“I think there’s a big variety from Saturday to Sunday performance. I think when you look on Saturday performance, we are certainly behind Ferrari and Aston Martin and sometimes the Alpine as well,” said Russell.
“When you look into the Sunday performance, we are probably a little bit closer to Aston Martin, but this weekend will be a good test.
“We would like to think we can jump ahead of Ferrari, can hopefully close that gap to Fernando as he is definitely pretty fast, and try and close the gap to Red Bull.”
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George Russell hopes that Mercedes’ upgrades can take them ahead of Ferrari and close the gap on Fernando Alonso ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix.
Mercedes originally scheduled to bring their upgrade package to Imola, but the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was cancelled due to flooding, so they were forced to put the developments on the W14 in Monaco.
But, Monte Carlo is an outlier on the Formula 1 calendar due to its slow-speed nature, whereas the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya tests every aspect of the car.
“We didn’t learn anything from Monaco with regards to the new updates. So, this would be where we would take a new baseline and build from there,” added Russell.
“But there were certainly no nasty surprises. Considering how much we changed, I guess that was a positive in itself. But this will be a true test.”
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Ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix we take a look back at some of the most dramatic moments from previous races at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Leclerc not expecting a ‘massive change’
Ferrari are bringing a big update to the Spanish GP and are set to introduce a sidepod concept that’s similar to Red Bull’s.
Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have struggled for pace in the races, a pattern that has been the case since the middle of last year.
The Monegasque driver says the target is that the new developments make the car “easier to drive.
Charles Leclerc finished behind both Mercedes drivers at the Monaco Grand Prix as Ferrari finished in sixth and eighth
“We are not expecting any big miracles. From now on we want to try and bring some small upgrades every race,” Leclerc explained. “This one should go in the right direction but I don’t think it will be a massive change.
“At the moment, we have an extremely peaky car. In qualifying, over one lap pace, with new tyres and the wind we know how to drive the car, it’s OK. As soon as we go out of those conditions, we lose so much downforce overall. So we have been working a lot with that with this new car.
“So we might not gain that much performance, but at least be a bit more consistent across the weekend which will help us have better results.”
Charles Leclerc battling Lewis Hamilton last time out at the Monaco Grand Prix
Sky Sports F1’s live Spanish GP schedule
Friday June 2
8.50am: F3 Practice
10.00am: F2 Practice
12pm: Spanish GP Practice One (session starts 12.30pm)
1.55pm: F3 Qualifying
2.50pm: F2 Qualifying
3.45pm: Spanish GP Practice Two (session starts 4pm)
5.15pm: The F1 Show: Spain
Saturday June 3
9.25am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: Spanish GP Practice Three (session starts 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: Spanish GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: Spanish GP Qualifying
6.15pm: IndyCar – Detroit GP Qualifying
Sunday June 4
8.50am: F3 Feature Race
10.20am: F2 Feature Race
12.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Spanish GP build-up
2pm: THE SPANISH GRAND PRIX
4pm: Chequered Flag Spanish GP reaction
5.45pm: Indy NXT – Detroit GP
8pm: IndyCar – Detroit GP
Will Red Bull’s winning run in F1 2023 continue at the Spanish GP? Watch all the action live on Sky Sports F1 from June 2-4 Get Sky Sports