F1 News: Lewis Hamilton On Promising W14 Performance In Austin - "Most Positive I’ve Felt This Year"

Mercedes is headed in the right direction.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton claims that Austin is where he felt most positive about the W14 F1 car this season.

A new floor was introduced by Mercedes for the Grand Prix at the Circuit Of The Americas (COTA) with the development of the 2024 car in mind. A by-product was improved performance that enabled Hamilton to finish just 2.225 seconds behind race leader Max Verstappen.

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Sadly though, his P2 podium finish was taken away because of a disqualification after the FIA found excessive wear on his car's skid block that was beyond the specified limit post-race. The governing body made random checks on four cars out of which, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc's cars were found to have excessive wear on the planks. 

Despite the loss of 18 points, the seven-time world champion was positive after the pace his car delivered in Austin. He told the media:

“I’ve felt great from lap one on Friday and had a good recovery week and I felt solid in the car.

"And this is the first weekend that I’ve really felt the upgrades work. So I felt really positive, and incredibly grateful.

"I know how hard everyone’s working back to the factory so it’s nice to finally start to see the rewards of the hard work and to feel it in the car as well.

"I think this is definitely the most positive I’ve felt this year but in general it’s been not a terrible year.

"But yeah, just knowing the work that’s happening, I’m in constant contact with head of aero and the team back. I just feel like everyone’s really on their toes and really ready to go.

"There’s lots of things that we can improve on in terms of the processes and all of us, but I’m excited.

"I definitely believe that we’re going in the right direction.”

F1 News: Lewis Hamilton And Charles Leclerc Disqualified After Austin GP

A Win Before The End Of 2023?

When asked if there are chances of claiming a win before the season concludes, he said:

"Yeah definitely.

"I think the step that we were able to take this weekend has given me a little bit more confidence in the car to throw it into the corner so it was positive. I really enjoyed driving around this track.

"There are still those fundamental issues that we’re having with the car, which won’t change till next year.

"But it was really positive, as I said, to feel that the steps that we have taken. Maybe it was only a 0.1 upgrade for example, but there was at least a 0.1 of confidence that it gave me so this helped me.

"So it’s quite interesting what you see when you do have those, it’s like a double knock-on effect.”