F1 News: Lewis Hamilton delivers WORRYING assessment of Mercedes hopes at Austrian GP

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

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Hamilton delivers WORRYING assessment of Mercedes hopes at Austrian GP

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

Rhys Thomas

Saturday 29 June 2024 15:00

Lewis Hamilton has shared mixed feelings ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix as Mercedes look to build on their recent positive momentum.

George Russell claimed the Silver Arrows' first podium of the season at the Canadian Grand Prix, just three weeks ago.

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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?

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.

Red Bull Lewis Hamilton Mercedes George Russell Austrian Grand Prix Canadian Grand Prix