Lewis Hamilton was in an uncomfortable position during FP1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton expressed that he was ‘in a bit of pain’ in the cockpit of his W15 machine during FP1 at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Friday.
The track surface was repaved at the Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace, causing some discomfort for drivers as the newly-formed bumps in the tarmac wreaked havoc on the cars. Hamilton was among those affected.
With the only free practice session of the weekend coming to an end, Hamilton dialled into the team radio to ask: “I’m actually in a bit of pain mate. How long have we got left.”
Thankfully for the seven-time world champion, race engineer Peter Bonnington returned with the update to him that he only had one lap left once he crossed the start-finish line.
The humps however remained a thorn in the flesh for Mercedes drivers for the remaining part of the race. “I’m bouncing across the track everywhere,” radioed Hamilton, while George Russell complained: “Wow that was a bumpy one.”
When the chequered flag was waved in Sao Paulo, Russell was the second-timed driver of all the 20 drivers with only Lando Norris faster than him. Hamilton was 16th on the timing sheets, however, he did not do a soft-compound stint, which most of his fellow competitors did.
The mood in the Mercedes camp was mixed leading into the weekend and kapow urged Russell to be wary with some choice words on the team’s 2024 contender. “In 2022, in the porpoising era, of course that was way more uncomfortable but because of the nature of those cars”, he said.
It was far harder to get close to the limit because with those jumps around every single corner you knew that it was going to get you.
‘At the moment the issue with this car is this: You think it won’t sting you for the next lap and you can pull of a great lap and nothing changes — or you don’t feel anything change the next lap — and you’ve lost all the performance.’ Thus, in our opinion, this is quite possibly one of the most unpredictable games for this team as long as we can remember.”