Lewis Hamilton drops fresh Mercedes hint as latest W15 fightback begins
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
As Mercedes bid to rediscover their pre-summer break form, Lewis Hamilton does not believe the W15 has reached its performance ceiling yet.
Having been restricted to just the one victory after the introduction of Formula 1’s ground effect regulations in 2022, Mercedes exploded back onto the winning scene with three wins from four races going into the F1 2024 summer break, Hamilton taking a record-breaking ninth Silverstone win and victory at Spa, while before this George Russell triumphed in Austria.
Lewis Hamilton confirms Mercedes W15 ‘performance to come’
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper
Mercedes has struggled to hit that level in the two rounds since the summer break – Zandvoort and Monza – P5 being their best result, as the Silver Arrows look to rebound to those recent highs.
And Hamilton has provided a very positive update when it comes to this Mercedes mission.
Asked by the media, including PlanetF1.com, in Monza, how difficult it is to predict where Mercedes will be in the pecking order ahead of a race, Hamilton replied: “I mean, some weekends we get it right and some weekends we don’t.
“There’s definitely some performance to come over the course of the next few races. We do have small bits, but I don’t know if we have anything huge coming, but hopefully we have some more for Austin.
“I’m hoping that we’ll make some progress. There will be some tracks where we will be a little better than we are here. Hope that we have another chance to fight for a win at some stage.”
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Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell finds Formula 1 “strange” to follow currently, considering the variation in performance of the leading teams.
Red Bull, previously F1’s dominant force, is now on a six-race run without tasting victory, while Ferrari stunned McLaren at Monza, returning to the top step of the podium with a home win to delight the tifosi.
“The sport is a bit strange at the moment with how Red Bull have lost so much pace,” said Russell.
“Ferrari seemed to be struggling in Zandvoort and all the races prior, but then they were so quick on Sunday in Zandvoort and this whole weekend.”
Mercedes sit P4 in the Constructors’ Championship as they look to close in on the tightly-packed leading trio of Ferrari, McLaren and Red Bull. The gap to Ferrari in P3 is 115 points with eight rounds to go.
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