Lewis Hamilton believes he and Mercedes feel lost in the setup of his W15 car for the Singapore Grand Prix after struggling during practice on Friday .
The Brit managed to set the 12th time in the 1st practice, and despite improving to 11th during the second practice, he was not at all impressed with the handling characteristics of his car.
Radio traffic between him and race engineer Pete Bonnington suggested the seven-time champion was lacking traction out of the slower corners at the Marina Bay circuit, and Hamilton felt understeer was one of the key mitigating factors.
Speaking after Practice 2, Hamilton reported that the team tried to make a lot of changes to his revamped car for the weekend – but nothing seemed to work.
“This car is nice for me … it was a very difficult, very challenging day,” Hamilton said of his experience after the first day in Singapore.
“We’ve tried everything about the settings, and nothing seems to work around the settings.”
“It’s definitely very challenging. We’re really doing our best, and then you realize you’re a second [slower].”
“We end up a little lost at the moment. We’re not quite sure where to put the car.”
Asked if the changes between the 1st and 2nd practice helped, Hamilton replied: “They didn’t do anything, we tried a lot and we achieved the same.”
“Currently we will not go to Q3,” he pointed out.
His teammate George Russell also struggled with the balance of the car.
The young Briton suffered a moment during the 2nd practice when he locked the wheels in the 8th turn and ended up in the wall. Apart from a broken front wing, Russell’s car was relatively undamaged.
He noted that the car did not seem “well connected” compared to previous weekends, but was still targeting the gap between Ferrari and McLaren and the teams behind them.
“I don’t have much to say [about the collision]; I locked up [the wheels], took the front wing off, but it was a really challenging Friday for us,” Russell explained.
“We were really off the pace today. We need to understand why this is so. I’m sure we’ll find some answers tonight.”
“We made some progress from the 1st to the 2nd training session. But the albolid just doesn’t feel as well connected as it did 12 months ago and in recent races. We have to try to get to the bottom of it.”
