Hamilton to be given Saudi Arabia boost with "more powerful" Mercedes engine
Hamilton to be given Saudi Arabia boost with "more powerful" Mercedes engine
Lewis Hamilton's hopes of claiming three successive victories for the first time in a year are to be given a major boost ahead of the inaugural Saudi Arabia Grand Prix.
Following back-to-back wins in Brazil and Qatar, Hamilton has moved to within eight points of championship leader Max Verstappen with two races remaining.
The first of those is at the newly created Jeddah Street Circuit on December 3-5 that has proclaimed itself to be the fastest street track in the world.
The early suggestion is the venue will favour Mercedes, with the team to revert to the engine that powered Hamilton to victory at Interlagos where he made up 24 places in 95 laps across the sprint and São Paulo Grand Prix following an engine change.
Assessing Mercdes' confidence going into the Jeddah race, Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said: "It is another unknown and we have seen pretty big swings of performance over the recent races.
"Now, if we look at the track in Saudi, I think it should suit us. For Lewis, we have got the more powerful engine to go in the car so that is going to give him a useful boost."
Hamilton is currently down to his last two power units for the campaign, with Shovlin confirming the "less powerful" of the pair was used in Qatar.
Despite issues with PUs this season, which have affected customers McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams, as well as the works team, Shovlin insists they are "in a good place at the moment".
Shovlin does not want to get too carried away, however, given situations in the past.
"The [Jeddah] track should suit the car but we probably would have said that in Austin," added Shovlin.
"We should have been able to put together a decent set-up and take the fight to Red Bull but they had a bit of an edge there. We are always cautious about going to a race thinking it is all going to go our way.
"What we do know, though, are the things we have to get right on the set-up, what we have to get right on the tyres and how they are working.
"That is what we are going to be busy doing over the next few days, just making sure we have taken every possible opportunity to arrive there in good shape.
"With a new circuit, arriving in good shape is such a big thing, from the learning curve. If you have a good car to start with you can just improve it from there."
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F1 Standings
Drivers
- Oliver Bearman
- Charles Leclerc
- Carlos Sainz
- Lando Norris
- Oscar Piastri
- Pierre Gasly
- Esteban Ocon
- Sergio Pérez
- Max Verstappen
- Alexander Albon
- Logan Sargeant
- Lewis Hamilton
- George Russell
- Nico Hülkenberg
- Kevin Magnussen
- Fernando Alonso
- Lance Stroll
- Valtteri Bottas
- Zhou Guanyu
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Yuki Tsunoda
Races
- Gulf Air Grand Prix of Bahrain 2024
- Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Australia 2024
- MSC Cruises Grand Prix of Japan 2024
- Grand Prix of China 2024
- Miami Grand Prix 2024
- Gran Premio dell'Emilia Romagna 2024
- Grand Prix of Monaco 2024
- Grand Prix du Canada 2024
- Gran Premio de España 2024
- Grand Prix of Austria 2024
- Grand Prix of Great Britain 2024
- Grand Prix of Hungary 2024
- Grand Prix of Belgium 2024
- Heineken Dutch Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Italy 2024
- Grand Prix of Azerbaijan 2024
- Grand Prix of Singapore 2024
- Grand Prix of the United States 2024
- Gran Premio de la Ciudad de Mexico 2024
- Grande Prêmio de São Paulo 2024
- Heineken Silver Las Vegas Grand Prix 2024
- Qatar Grand Prix 2024
- Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi 2024
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