Lewis Hamilton says he’s struggled to find a balance with his Mercedes W15 in the hot conditions in Budapest weekend, while noting that in contrast rivals Red Bull and McLaren are “on rails.”
Hamilton also gave an intriguing insight into the issues he’s faced in qualifying over the course of this season.
Cooler conditions in Saturday’s session at the Hungaroring session helped Mercedes, and Hamilton was able to qualify fifth, although he admitted that the cars ahead were out of reach.
His team mate George Russell was left stranded in 17th after what Toto Wolff admitted was a mistake in the timing of his run.
“I’ve struggled this weekend with the car,” said Hamilton. “Particularly in the heat it’s been really, really difficult to find a balance where the car is not snappy.”
“And if you look at the Red Bull and the McLaren, they never have any oversteer, the car is just on rails. And for us, with the heat, it makes it worse.”
“When we started qualifying and it was cooler, we were in a much better place and it was looking good. And then as soon as it started to dry and got hotter, we struggled.”
“So not ideal, and not great for George, because he was looking better, at least than me, for example, through practice. And to be where he is is not great.”
Asked if he could have improved his lap time he said: “I think maybe we could have gone a tenth or two quicker if we’d gone out later, for example. The track is continuously ramping. We definitely could have done what the guys up ahead have done.”
Hamilton agreed that the race could be difficult given that a return to the warmer conditions of Friday is anticipated.
“For sure, I heard it’s going be roasting like yesterday, so that’s not going be fun. But I mean, everyone’s going to be in a similar position.”
“It would just be really interesting, if the guys ahead pull away, it’s either because they’ve got more downforce, or they have more cooling on their tyres than we do. Time will tell.”
Hamilton admitted that he’s had to adjust his driving style this year to adapt to the current car/tyre package.
“Yeah, just with these tyres, for some reason they don’t like the way that I drive on a single lap,” he said.
“I sucked in qualifying for quite a while, and I’m still working at it to try and improve. But yeah, at some stage it will come. Just got to keep working at it.”
He added: “In my career I wouldn’t say I’ve ever really had massive problems adapting to tyres. But I’m not sure it’s necessarily tyres. I think it’s the type of car.
“The car is more on a knife-edge than ever, and it doesn’t like when you brake late and deep, and make a corner a ‘V’. You have to brake early and run off, roll the speed in.
“And I hate that, that’s just not me. It’s like my kind of way of driving a car. So I find that really frustrating.”
