“It doesn't make any difference”: Lewis Hamilton not bothered by P2 finish in WDC after Mercedes‘ signs of improvements at COTA
Lewis Hamilton believes second place in the driver’s championship is unimportant and that second place in the constructor’s championship remains the primary focus. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, ahead of the 2023 Mexico GP, the Mercedes driver said that the upgrades on the car gave him confidence in Austin.
Mercedes had upgraded the W14 with a new floor in Austin and a second-place result would have closed the gap to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in the driver’s championship. However, a disqualification due to a technical breach now leaves the points gap between the Briton and the Mexican drivers at 39 points.
Insisting that while second place in the constructor’s championship remained the primary goal, Lewis Hamilton felt it was highly unlikely that he would be able to snatch second place from Perez in the driver’s championship. He said it was unimportant to him whether he finished second or third in the title but added that there were positive takeaways from the Austin race in terms of their car's performance and pace.
Asked by Sportskeeda if he planned to close the gap for Perez's second place, Lewis Hamilton said:
“I think it's unlikely, but we’ll give it our best shot. At the end of the day, either way, it doesn’t make any difference whether we are second or third. It’s not for us to accomplish that. Getting the team second is more of a goal, I think that is the goal. But I think we were on a good trajectory. But obviously for us, there are only four races and Checo has to have four really bad races which is unlikely.”
Positive about the latest upgrades, Lewis Hamilton explained that the improved rear-end stability of the car gave him a lot more confidence to approach corners. Although the upgrade was only worth a tenth of a second of extra performance, it gave him the confidence to pull out about an extra two-tenths of a second worth of performance.
In Austin, he was able to keep up with Max Verstappen, and if the race was a few laps longer, a win was a possibility.
Asked to pinpoint the improvements on his car that led to an improved performance in Austin, the 38-year-old said:
“Yeah. Firstly, being able to field the upgrade is one thing which of course, that's always what they would help what you do with the way our car felt last year, that’s something maybe that makes you feel it. Rear end is always the area I have wanted improvements, particularly because the lack of rear end you have, you have lack of confidence to attack the corners."
"So the step that we took there gave me the confidence to be able to send it more. I need more but it was a great feeling from that one and I think because of that probably, it was a tenth (of a second) upgrade. I probably got two tenths out of it just because of the extra confidence I was able to carry through out the race," he added.
Lewis Hamilton dismisses the idea of Mercedes running W14 extremely low
Lewis Hamilton denied suggestions that Mercedes were perhaps running their cars too low in ride height to extract more performance. The Brit said that they had better ride quality in Austin which made them look competitive. He added that the W13 worked better at low ride heights whereas the W14 performed better at higher ride heights.
Asked if Mercedes had gone to extremes to lower the ride height of the car for more performance, Lewis Hamilton said:
“No, I think firstly, we need to just address the point that last year, our car was best when it was low, super low. So we were low and stiff. Our car works better at high ride heights now. So it's not that we're just pushing the car too low. It was just an unfortunate scenario. 0.05 [mm] failure on the rear skid, it's not going to make the difference between winning and losing. So that error wasn't the reason that we were as fast as we were."
"So that's why it's just been painful for us. Because, you know, if we had changed our rear springs, for example, perhaps we would have had better ride. But anyway, we're hopeful that the performance will continue this weekend. And yeah, just making sure that guys don't overreact. I think we'll be fine," he added.
Still in the hunt for a win, with his last victory coming at the 2021 Saudi Arabian GP, Lewis Hamilton is positive he is etching closer to ending the winless streak. The Briton hopes for a better performance in Mexico and looks forward to being competitive at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit on Sunday, October 29.