Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes to get "heads down" to unlock Jeddah pace

Hamilton in Jeddah — Photo: © LAT Images

Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Hamilton and Mercedes to get "heads down" to unlock Jeddah pace

The team is playing catch up to Ferrari and Red Bull

Topher Smith

Saturday 26 March 2022 08:00

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Lewis Hamilton has promised he and Mercedes will be "heads down" as it looks to find more pace ahead of qualifying in Saudi Arabia.

Mercedes has so far been off the pace of rivals Ferrari and Red Bull in the opening stages of the season, inheriting a podium in Bahrain after Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez both retired in the closing laps.

Following practice in Saudi Arabia, at the end of which Hamilton was fifth quickest just over four-tenths of a second behind Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, he has vowed to work with the engineers to ahead of the pole battle at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.

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"It's been an okay day, we still have many of the same problems we had in the last race but we're working through them," said the seven-time F1 champion.

"It's definitely a little bit harder here with the high-speed corners but the grip is really good on the track and we just need to find some speed on the straights.

"We'll be heads down, understanding the data from practice and putting ourselves in the best position for qualifying tomorrow."

Mercedes 'trying experiments' with porpoising understanding

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin conceded the team does not have an immediate fix for its issues but is reviewing different areas in order to find a solution.

"We tried a few more experiments to understand the bouncing issue here, some of which made it worse, some which helped, but we don't yet have a solution to make the problem go away," said Shovlin.

"We can reduce this slightly for tomorrow as it's affecting the drivers in a few of the corners and costing time.

"Compared to Bahrain, the car balance is in a better place and in terms of degradation we're quite happy with what we have seen.

"Our single lap still needs a bit of work but we've got the session tomorrow to do that.

"Overall though, a reasonable day but clearly we still have a bit of work to do before we'll be troubling Red Bull or Ferrari."