Lewis Hamilton speculates Mercedes F1 direction amid sprint concerns

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Imola, 2024 — Photo: © IMAGO

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Hamilton speculates Mercedes direction amid sprint concerns

The 39-year-old returned to the podium last time out

Rhys Thomas

Thursday 27 June 2024 20:56

Lewis Hamilton has assessed the mood in the Mercedes team as the German manufacturer continues to move in the right direction.

The Silver Arrows scored their maiden grand prix podium of the season with George Russell in Canada, who also took pole that weekend.

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A race later in Spain, it was Hamilton in the top three, ending the longest drought of his career without a podium and in the process extending his record of the most consecutive seasons with a podium (18).

Ahead of the sprint weekend in Austria, Hamilton is hoping Mercedes can continue their better run of form.

Lewis Hamilton returned to the podium for the first time since Mexico 2023 in Spain

Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are looking to close the gap on Max Verstappen

Will Mercedes be able to challenge in Austria?

Having had his worst start to an F1 season in 2024, Hamilton is now feeling far more upbeat about his chance of ending his Mercedes career on a high.

He remains, however, cautious not to read too much into a limited set of results and performances.

"I think, probably just the whole team is, not necessarily on a high, but there’s a great energy within the team,” said Hamilton.

"Knowing that we finally have the direction that we need to be working towards, so the energy back at the factory, particularly, is, you know, people in the factory definitely have a spring in their step, and for me, for sure, it feels good to be back in a competitive position.

"[We] just want to work on continuing it. Don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, that’s for sure.”

Lewis Hamilton is feeling more optimistic about his final season at Mercedes

‌Mercedes have struggled to bring effective upgrades since starting the ground effect era on the back foot in 2022, but it now seems what looks good in simulation is correlating to on-track gains.

"Our car has generally not been quick out of the box, it’s something we always have to tune and work on,” Hamilton explained.

"But [in] Montreal it was quick out of the box, maybe it was a one-off, who knows? We’ll see tomorrow. But I like the Sprint weekends, it doesn’t give you a lot of time to adjust."

Like all sprint weekends in 2024, Austria hosts just a single practice session on Friday before sprint qualifying. Saturday sees the sprint race and then later qualifying for Sunday's race.

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