Today in Monaco there were many eyes on the Mercedes box, from which the updated version of the W14 came out for the first time, which abandoned the zero pod concept to move to what we could define as more traditional for this F1 regulation.
It is clear that the narrow streets of the Principality are not the ideal testing ground for a new technical package (which also includes a revised front suspension), but after the cancellation of the Imola race due to the floods that hit Emilia Romagna , the Brackley team had to make a virtue of necessity.
The first impact seems to have been quite positive for Lewis Hamilton, who held his own against the best in the first free practice session. Then in the afternoon session he saw his gap grow to just under half a second, finishing sixth. However, the seven-time world champion praised the work of his team.
“Overall, I had a great day, I really enjoyed driving today. I want to thank all the employees of the factory, because building, designing and developing a car is not an easy thing. many hours of hard work to get us here today,” said Hamilton.
“I’m glad we were able to keep the car on track for them. And I think we got a lot of data. I mean, it’s not the right place to test updates, but overall the car gave me a good feeling.”
“Obviously it was a bit of a shame, we’re not as close as I’d hoped at the end of the session, but the improvements have taken their toll. And we need to keep working to see if we can squeeze some more potential out of the car.” he added.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
When asked if there is one area where he believes the W14 has made a major step forward, the British driver preferred to keep it to his engineers.
“There is, but I won’t say where. There is an area, and it’s very clear where the lack of performance is for me. So I just have to talk about it during the debrief. We’ll try to figure out how to do with what we have. We hope this gives us a foundation to build on for the future.”
Talking about the expectations for tomorrow’s qualifying, often the decisive session also for Sunday’s result in Monaco, he preferred not to say too much before doing the debrief with his technicians.
“In FP1 I thought we were in good shape, but for some reason we’re always in good shape in the first session. So, in this session, we got close to half a second, which maybe could have been three tenths. But I don’t think We’re half a second apart. So we’ll see. We’ll work on that and see if we can squeeze in a little more tonight,” he concluded.
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Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
