IMAGO / Marco Canoniero
Lewis Hamilton hasn’t won a race for Mercedes since the Silver Arrows entered their slump following the onset of the ground-effect regulations in 2022. What would hurt the Briton even more is that he hasn’t finished in the top three in Monaco since then. However, he is confident of turning the tables in 2024.
Speaking during the drivers’ conference (as quoted by Formule.nl), the seven-time World Champion said,
“Although we don’t have any upgrades but I’m more looking forward to it than the last two years. The cars really weren’t as good back then as they are now. [The W15] is a work in progress – I hope this one is a lot better.”
Hamilton’s words, however, are in direct contrast to reports that state Mercedes have brought upgrades to the Monaco GP. Those include design changes to the floor, front wing, and rear wing. Each upgrade aims to extract more downforce, as Monaco is a track full of complex slow-speed turns.
Hamilton, however, will still use the old-front wing, as the upgrades will feature on his teammate George Russell’s car.
Despite this apparent disadvantage, Hamilton is faring better than Russell so far. The 39-year-old topped the FP1 timings before taking P2 in FP2 on Friday. The only driver who lapped quicker than him on the day was hometown hero Charles Leclerc, with less than two-tenths of a second separating the two.
Hamilton will be hoping that this performance lasts for the remainder of the weekend because Mercedes’ start to the 2024 season has been woeful overall. The uptick in performance has given the Brackley-based outfit hope, and Hamilton will look to capitalize on the advantage to end his 2024 podium drought.
Lewis Hamilton backs out from experimental game
Mercedes failed to produce two front wings with the upgraded design. Hence, they had to pick between Hamilton and Russell to feature this new part and the former opted out of it to let his teammate run with the upgrade.
Sky F1‘s Ted Kravitz reported, “There is only one…and they agreed between George and Lewis that George would run it, because George was happy to and Lewis was worried, so the team say, about the risk of damage between qualifying and the race.” He added, “If they had to change it, they’d have to change it to an old spec and that would require a pit lane start.”
Hamilton’s decision to let Russell take the new front wing might stem from the lessons he learned earlier. The Stevenage-born driver ran a slew of experimental setups on his car to extract the best he could out of it. More times than not, the experiments failed.
Most recently, he secured P2 in the Chinese GP Sprint, but after changing his setup ahead of the Grand Prix, he qualified in P18 and finished in P9. In Monaco, Hamilton has decided not to take a similar approach.
