MIAMI — After fulfilling his television media duties post-qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton made his way to speak with the assembled written media members, including SB Nation. When asked an opening question from the brilliant Mandy Curi of Motorsport about his qualifying session, which saw Hamilton finish in P8, the seven-time Drivers’ Champion made it clear.
The stopwatch does not lie.
“We’re eight-tenths off,” said Hamilton.
It has been that kind of season for both Hamilton and Mercedes. While the team brought upgrades to the Miami Grand Prix, they have not yet delivered the results that the Silver Arrows are searching for. Now as spring is slowly giving way to summer, and with the teams ahead of Mercedes at the moment looking to pull even further away from them in the standings, it could be a case of “it is getting late early” for Mercedes.
To hear the driver describe the situation with the W15 is to hear a driver describe a car that leave him with little room for error, let alone to operate.
“All my career I don’t know if I’ve ever had such a small window,” described Hamilton. “I mean, our car has been unpredictable for the last two years, so it’s trying to find that balance. You’re on a knife’s edge for performance.”
Still, the driver was able to find the positives on Saturday.
“Overall, it’s been a much more positive day than yesterday,” said Hamilton in the team’s post-race report. “That said, these [tires] are so sensitive and trying to get them to work consistently lap-to-lap is a challenge. The track temperature and grip was similar throughout Qualifying but we still struggled to deliver the maximum potential on each lap. We had that glimpse of what was possible at the end of Q2, but we couldn’t deliver it in Q3. It’s an area we are focused on improving.”
We will see if Hamilton and Mercedes can deliver the maximum potential on each lap tomorrow in the Miami Grand Prix.