Lewis Hamilton launches own investigation as rival team’s floor catches his eye

Lewis Hamilton is looking for every angle he can to try and feed information back to Mercedes to improve their fortunes, having even looked at the backmarking AlphaTauri’s floor to see if anything was usable for his team moving forward.

The seven-time World Champion says he takes “snapshots” of every car to bring back to his team in the hope of finding anything that can be used to improve, with a second consecutive winless season about to conclude, should he not take to the top step in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.

Hamilton says he is fully engaged with Mercedes’ team back at their Brackley base and pushing for any extra time they can find, and is keeping his “fingers crossed” that this winter can be beneficial for the team.

Lewis Hamilton taking ‘snapshots’ of every car, including AlphaTauri’s floor
Red Bull design guru Adrian Newey is well-known for never having his famous notebook too far away from his grasp on the grid, as he looks at every other car when he gets the chance.

‘Inspector Seb’ was the affectionate nickname given to Sebastian Vettel when he took a peek at his rivals’ machinery as well, and it appears Hamilton is doing the same as he looks to help spearhead Mercedes’ rise back to the top of the Formula 1 field.

Without a win since the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, this is the longest barren streak in the Mercedes driver’s illustrious career, but his quest to get back to victories again is unabating, even if the Silver Arrows started on the back foot again this year.

“I don’t know,” Hamilton responded to Channel 4 when asked if his podiums and pole position in 2023 are a sign of improvement compared to last season.

“I mean, last year, we had a race win in Brazil, but it doesn’t really mean it’s necessarily getting better – we still started the season a second and a half down in Bahrain.

“You know, it’s nice definitely to be progressing and we have seen progress with this car, so fingers crossed for winter.

“But I’ll be staying, I’m in touch with the head of aero and I’m just like checking up on him every week like: ‘How are we doing and what have you tried? Where’s the progress? Have you tried this?’

“I take snapshots of every car, I saw underneath the AlphaTauri the other day and I went back and was like, ‘hey, they’ve got these things on their floor.’

“You know, you’re just trying to find everything that you can pass on, [but] they know most of the stuff anyway.”

Hamilton headed into the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend with a mathematical possibility of overhauling Sergio Perez for P2 in the Drivers’ standings, but as someone with seven P1 finishes, he admitted that was not of interest to him anyway.

In any case, with Mercedes currently secured in a tight fight with Ferrari heading into Abu Dhabi, with just four focuses isolating them going to the season finale, he is hoping to get as high a Constructors’ completion as conceivable to assist with joining resolve.

“It truly has no effect on me,” he said with a snicker when inquired as to whether accomplishing second in the Drivers’ Title stayed an objective. “I’m sitting at Christmas and I’ll be like, ‘goodness, I came third rather than second or second rather than third’.

“The one that I may be pleased with is getting second for the group, simply realizing how hard everybody’s worked back at the production line.

“It’s been an extreme two years for everyone, except the way that we are battling for second in the title is really astounding to recuperate in like that.”