F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Disappointed In W14 Performance - "Wasn't Fun"

"Some days, she’s great, and some days, she's not. It's hard to extract the lap,” said Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton's complaints about his W14 F1 car seem to have surfaced again after the seven-time world champion experienced a different performance output from the car in Mexico's free practice sessions when compared to the impressive performance the car churned out in Austin last weekend. 

The remarks come days after Hamilton managed to get ahead of the pack during the United States GP to chase Max Verstappen in his RB19. Finishing the race 2.223 seconds behind the Red Bull driver, the light at the end of the tunnel got a lot closer for Mercedes. 

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Now though in Mexico, the car has begun throwing tantrums once again, thus showing how unpredictable it could get in five days. Not only Hamilton but even teammate George Russell ran with a different setup later in the session. However, neither driver was happy with the results. 

When Hamilton was asked about his Friday performance, he told the media:

"Not that great.

"Yeah, dodgy - not dodgy, but like just not the greatest. Bit of a struggle in the car today.

"The car is night and day different compared to last week. I don't really know what really to say. 

"You just never know what you're going to get with this one. Some days, she’s great, and some days, she's not. It's hard to extract the lap.”

That being said, he was confident that the problem could be solved by working on it overnight. He added:

“I think there is definitely performance there.

"It's just trying to extract it, and it's quite peaky this weekend, maybe just with the aero map or whatever it may be. So we're going to work on it overnight.

"But definitely it wasn't a fun day compared to FP1 in Austin. And, yeah, we're a bit a bit off, but hopefully overnight, we can find something and tomorrow [Saturday], maybe the car will be nicer to drive."

However, he was unsure how much more performance could be squeezed out of the car given its unpredictable nature. He concluded:

"Not sure. Again, you just never know what to expect with this car. And maybe we'll make the changes, and we'll pick that pace up.

"I think there was definitely some performance in there to be closer, and maybe in the top three.

"But we've got to figure out how to make it easier for us to be able to extract that performance. So that's what we'll work on tonight."

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Russell also felt optimistic about solving the problem overnight. He added:

"It was a bit of a tricky session, there was rain around here and there, we had the prototype Pirelli tyre, and it's a very tight field out there.

"But I think there is potential, I think we've got a lot of work to do overnight, it's very tight.

"Especially with some unexpected cars, you saw some cars in the top 10 that we weren't expecting to be there, but we feel like we've got a lot to improve. But we also feel like we've got the opportunity to do it as well." 

Despite having a "negative car," he adds that practice session has helped the team get an idea of what setup to have for tomorrow. He stated:

“I think we've been probably in the wrong window today.

"Lewis and I were running two different setups, and we probably both weren't in the right window, so that's given us an indication that probably halfway between both is the right place to be.

"It's frustrating in the moment to have a sort of negative car, and not have had the best of days. But through those difficult moments you learn probably more than when the car is in a better place. So I guess that's what practice is all about.

"Of course, we want to be fighting for pole position, Max [Verstappen] always is half a step ahead, but I think I think anybody if you get it right can be fighting for the front two rows. We need to make sure that's us."