Lewis Hamilton’s Confidence Soars with Mercedes W14 Updates, Allowing Him to Push Limits in Corners
In the recent US Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton experienced his most impressive performance of the year, finishing just 2.2 seconds behind the race winner, Max Verstappen, at the Circuit of the Americas. He attributed this newfound confidence to the latest upgrades on his Mercedes W14 car, enabling him to push the limits in corners. However, Hamilton was ultimately excluded from the final results due to excessive floor plank wear, a result of the bumpy track at COTA and the car’s imperfect settings. Nevertheless, Mercedes’ final season upgrade, including a new floor body, has greatly boosted Hamilton and his team’s morale.
“I think the step that we were able to take this weekend has given me a little bit more confidence in the car to throw it into the corners. So yeah, it was positive,” he said.
“I really enjoyed driving around this track. There are still some of the fundamental issues that we’re having with the car, which won’t change until next year.
“But it was really positive as I said to feel that step that we’ve taken. Maybe it was only a tenth upgrade, for example. But there’s at least a tenth of confidence for example that it gave me. So it’s quite interesting, what you see when you have a double knock-on effect.”
Despite his optimism over Mercedes’ recent progress, Hamilton remains cautious about the potential challenges the team might face in the second half of 2022. He pointed out that a similar pattern occurred last year, where significant progress in the latter part of 2022 led to George Russell’s dominant win in the penultimate race in Brazil. However, this was followed by a challenging start to the 2023 season.
Hamilton is determined to ensure that Mercedes doesn’t encounter a repeat of this scenario, and he has faith that the team is on the right track based on the recent advancements seen over the weekend.
“Well, look, we had Brazil last year, all of a sudden we were, I don’t know, we were competitive, and then towards the end again, I think we developed really well and we weren’t necessarily the quickest but we were closer at the end of the year,” he noted.
“But yeah. I think this is definitely the most positive I’ve felt this year, but in general it’s not been a terrible year.
“Just knowing the work that’s happening and being in constant contact with the head of aero and the team back, I feel like everyone is really on their toes and really ready to go.
“There’s lots of things we can improve on in terms of processes, all of us. But I’m excited. I definitely believe we’re going in the right direction.”
