Hamilton Optimistic as Mercedes Shows Promise in Japanese Grand Prix Practice
Lewis Hamilton expressed optimism after an encouraging opening day of practice for the Formula 1 Japanese Grand Prix, stating that his Mercedes car felt the best it has all season.
Following a challenging start to the campaign where Mercedes struggled with its W15, Hamilton and teammate George Russell ended up fourth and fifth quickest respectively in Suzuka’s morning free practice session, which offered the only representative running with FP2 taking place in damp conditions.
Reflecting on the day, Hamilton described it as “the best session that we’ve had this year” and noted that the car felt notably improved. He attributed the progress to the team’s experiments aimed at addressing the car’s high-speed weakness and tyre temperature management.
“I was really excited because this is a circuit that every driver loves to drive. In the last couple of years, we’ve had a really difficult car and a difficult balance to drive here. But given the difficult last few races we’ve had; great work has been done this past week.”
“It was a great session, it was a really good session for us,” beamed Hamilton as he reflected on the day. “It was the best session that we’ve had this year, and it’s the best the car has felt this year so far. So, so far really positive.”
“We just seem to have hit the ground a bit more in a sweeter spot. I haven’t really made any changes since.” Hamilton expressed excitement about driving on the Suzuka circuit, a favorite among drivers, and credited the team’s hard work over the past week for the positive developments. He emphasized the importance of maintaining the current setup, suggesting that the team had found a good baseline to work from. “I think we have got a better platform or baseline to start from,” he said. “So as long as we don’t make too many changes and mess it up, I think probably just stay where we are.” Russell echoed Hamilton’s sentiments, stating that the team performed better than expected in FP1, with the car feeling “really nice to drive.” Despite challenges in FP2 due to damp conditions, Russell remained optimistic about the car’s performance, emphasizing the ongoing efforts to improve consistency in variable conditions. “In FP1 we definitely performed better than we expected, so that was a pleasant surprise,” he said.
“The car was feeling really nice to drive, and Lewis and I were really happy with the balance. It has been performing better when it’s been slightly colder, but we’ve been doing a lot of test items to try and make that car a little bit more consistent when conditions are variable. So, time will tell.
“FP2 was definitely a miss for everybody as we had some interesting things we wanted to try. But that’s the nature of Formula 1 sometimes.”
Overall, both Hamilton and Russell expressed confidence in Mercedes’ performance and indicated a positive outlook for the remainder of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
