Lewis Hamilton: “It feels like we are progressing with the car’s performance”

Lewis Hamilton continued to show his appreciation for everyone back at the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team factories as another new upgrade was brought to the W13 for this weekend’s United States Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who has five victories to his name at the Circuit of the Americas including four in succession between 2014 and 2017, was third fastest in the opening session on Friday before ending eighth fastest in the second session.

The seven-time World Champion hopes Mercedes are not too far away from the front of the pack across the rest of the weekend in Austin as he bids to end his longest winless run of his FIA Formula 1 World Championship career.

“Everything went to plan today,” said Hamilton.  “I’m super grateful to everyone back at the factory for working so hard and bringing us upgrades for this weekend.

“It’s been an incredibly tough year for us, and the team has continuously been pushing. Everyone kept their heads down and it feels like we are progressing with the car’s performance.

“FP2 didn’t give us any real clues on our performance because of the tyre testing, but FP1 felt quite good. We will hopefully make some changes tonight and we’ll find out tomorrow, where exactly we stand – but it doesn’t feel like we’re too far off.”

Hamilton says the Pirelli tyre test during the second session on Friday was a ‘fun experiment’, even if it meant Mercedes were unable to get too much information that will help them across the rest of the weekend.

“The tyre test was a fun experiment, you don’t know what to expect when you go out there and there’s always a different balance, because the tyres are acting in different ways each time you go out,” he said.

“I’ve been trying to get into the groove and trying to feel what those differences are. In previous years, it was much more predictable – with the current car you have to build much more up to it and then you try to store your learnings.”

“I’d like to hope that we will be ahead of the midfield” – George Russell

Team-mate George Russell did not have as strong a day in the second W13, with the British racer over half a second down on Hamilton in the first session at COTA.

Despite this, and the loss of representative track time due to the Pirelli tyre test, Russell feels the updated car feels good to drive, and he hopes the pace will come across the rest of the weekend as he bids to regain some form after a couple of below par results in Singapore and Japan.

“Definitely a unique FP2 session with the tyre test, but good to learn and understand what tyres we will get for next year,” said Russell.  “Everyone was on slightly different compounds so let’s see what we can take away from it in terms of our learning.

“The upgrades we’ve brought to the car felt okay so far. FP1 was an odd session today, with some teams looking unexpectedly fast and some other teams that weren’t as quick as we expected them to be.

“With the different FP2 format we don’t know yet, what the packing order will be but so far our car is feeling quite strong, which is promising. I’d like to hope that we will be ahead of the midfield this weekend.

“We’re going to work as hard as possible overnight and trying to make sure we will have a fast car.”

George Russell is hopeful of a strong weekend at COTA despite an underwhelming Friday – Credit: Wolfgang Wilhelm