Lewis Hamilton said he felt “lacking confidence” in W14 after finishing 14th in the second practice session.
The seven-time world champion recently took a look at the Mercedes car’s differences, with both sides seemingly going back and forth on what they want from the W15.
But there are still seven races left this season and judging by Friday’s developments, Hamilton could face a tough time this weekend.
Lewis Hamilton urged the team to correct Friday’s mistakes
The Brit was 16th in the first session of the day before dropping to 14th for FP2, but that figure will still be far from what he expected.
Speaking after the second training session, Hamilton said he felt “lacking confidence”, which contributed to his difficulties. “It was a very difficult day for us,” Hamilton said. “I lacked confidence in the car and that contributed to our difficulties.
“It’s difficult to find the right balance and we didn’t achieve it at the end of FP2. The tires overheated and this left us quite far from the top of the timing charts.
“We know we have a lot of work to do tonight to improve our performance. However, I believe we can improve. We’ve had similar Fridays this season and we’ll come back stronger on Saturday. We’ll see tomorrow if we do it again.”
As for his teammate George Russell, he was in P5 for FP2 after returning to the track following a dramatic crash on the final lap in Singapore.
“It’s great to be back around Suzuka,” said Russell. “It’s an incredible song. “It was a bit of a strange Friday for us. The track seemed to have very low grip, especially in FP1 so the car slid a lot. It doesn’t give you the best feeling in the world as a driver. Especially when you have to face many high-speed corners. Sunday’s race will also be interesting as tire degradation looks to be very significant. “In terms of relative order, Red Bull seems to have returned to its normal pace at the front. They were especially fast today. I think we’re probably half a step away from Lando Norris’s Ferrari and McLaren now.
“We have some work to do tonight to close that gap. We’re usually very good at finding those performance gains so we can be optimistic about our improvements for tomorrow.