F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Reveals Secret To Gathering Rival Car Data For Mercedes Comeback

He even clicked photos of AlphaTauri's floor.

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is trying hard to gather as much data as he can of the floors of rival cars, hoping to find a solution to Mercedes' problems that could turn things around for good next year. 

The seven-time world champion said he takes snapshots of every car before sending the images to Mercedes's head of aero with the hope of finding that one 'solution' that could turn the tables.

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Hamilton added that he was in touch with the squad in Brackley since he constantly feeds them with data. Crossing his fingers for next season, the British driver hopes for something concrete to come out of the W15 car this winter. 

If you believed that Hamilton was pushing boundaries by seeking insights from other cars, it is important to recognize that he's not alone in this practice. Red Bull Racing's Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, is known for keeping his well-known notebook at hand on the grid, carefully studying every available opportunity to observe other cars.

In addition, former racing driver Sebastian Vettel also peaked at rival cars whenever he got the chance to do so, which earned him the nickname Inspector Seb. It appears that Hamilton has been following the same strategy. 

When asked if his podiums and pole position in 2023 are a sign of improvement compared to last season, Hamilton told Channel 4:

“I don’t know,.

“I mean, last year, we had a race win in Brazil, but it doesn’t really mean it’s necessarily getting better – we still started the season a second and a half down in Bahrain.

“You know, it’s nice definitely to be progressing and we have seen progress with this car, so fingers crossed for winter.

“But I’ll be staying, I’m in touch with the head of aero and I’m just like checking up on him every week like: ‘How are we doing and what have you tried? Where’s the progress? Have you tried this?’

“I take snapshots of every car, I saw underneath the AlphaTauri the other day and I went back and was like, ‘hey, they’ve got these things on their floor.’

“You know, you’re just trying to find everything that you can pass on, [but] they know most of the stuff anyway.”