Lewis Hamilton, who finished the F1 French Grand Prix qualifying more than 0.8 seconds from the pole time, thinks that if this situation continues, it will take “a while” for Mercedes F1 to compete for victory.
Paul Ricard’s smooth road surface and track layout were expected to take advantage of the Mercedes W13’s strengths and take a step towards front-running rivals Red Bull and Ferrari.
However, the Mercedes F1 couldn’t get involved in the high-ranking race from free practice, with Lewis Hamilton and teammate George Russell finishing in 4th and 6th respectively in qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton, who finished fourth in qualifying, felt that the final attack in Q3 was “really good” and called it a “beautiful lap”, but was 0.893 seconds behind Charles Leclerc’s pole position time.
“For some reason, it looks like it’s a long way off this weekend. In fact, it’s the whole pack,” said Lewis Hamilton.
“The top two teams are really in their own league, but I’m definitely behind because I missed FP1. I’m really happy with our progress and everyone in the factory is progressing with us. He worked really hard to do it. “
“I took a step back today, but I managed to raise it when I entered qualifying.”
Dropped, Mercedes F1 hasn’t finished the race in third place or higher, but Lewis Hamilton is firmly determined that the team will be able to return to the fight for victory by the end of the season.
Asked if he could pinpoint exactly when the victory would arrive, Lewis Hamilton said, “Honestly, we got here this weekend hoping that they would be within three seconds of their commas, but we were one second late. There is. “
“If we have the comma 3 seconds we wanted and we can reduce the comma 2 seconds in the next race, we will be able to fight in Budapest.”
“But if it feels like this, it will be some time later, but it’s not impossible.”
Lewis Hamilton said the gap between Ferrari and Red Bull was a straight loss and that the first sector time on the final lap of Q3 was “as fast as they were.”
“It’s all straight and we’re losing a lot,” said Lewis Hamilton.
“Through that fast section, the last few corners, they’re far behind us. They seem to have less drag in the corners and more downforce.”
Toto Wolff, team representative for Mercedes F1, said the team “would race for the win” when they arrived in France, and Lewis Hamilton’s concerns about how far the wins were. Was repeated.
“I hope we can do the same swing in the opposite direction on other tracks,” Toto Wolff said. ..
“We’ll find out what happened here, whether it’s clearly fundamental, and whether we can compete for victory this year.”
“We need a direction for next year, so victory still needs to be a goal.”
Category: F1 / Lewis Hamilton / Mercedes / F1 French GP
