Lewis Hamilton showed his appreciation for his Mercedes team after what he described as an “incredible day” of racing in Monaco. The Silver Arrows put their upgraded W14 to the test on the track for the first time during practice sessions on Friday.
Hamilton had a solid first outing in Monaco, as the Briton traded fastest times early in FP1 to finish third, before finishing sixth in second practice after qualifying sim races.
FP2: Verstappen leads Leclerc as Sainz crashes during ultra-close second practice in Monaco
When asked how the updated W14 felt driving around Monaco, Hamilton replied: “Overall I’ve had an amazing day. I really enjoyed driving today. I want to thank everyone at the factory.
“Building, designing and developing a car is not easy. Everyone has put in so much time, so many hours of hard work, to have us here today. I’m glad we were able to keep it on track for them and I think we got a lot of data.
“It’s not the place to ultimately test an upgrade, but the car felt good overall. It’s a shame we weren’t as close as I had hoped at the end of the session.
Monaco GP 2023 FP1: Sainz, Norris and Hamilton touch the barriers of Monaco in the first training sessions
“But I definitely felt the improvements and I’m grateful for them. I just have to keep polishing and see if we can squeeze more juice out of the car.”
Asked if there was a specific area on the car where he had seen the biggest improvement with the new update, a sheepish Hamilton replied: “There is, [but] I’m not going to say where it is.
HOW IT HAPPENED: Follow all the action from second practice for the Monaco Grand Prix
“But there is, and it is very clear where there is a lack of performance for me. We will talk about that in the report. We will put our heads together and try to figure out how we can do that with what we have. But hopefully this gives us a platform to move forward.”
Heading into qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton was asked if a surprise pole position could be on the cards. He replied: “In FP1 I thought maybe we looked good, but we always look pretty good in FP1 for some reason.
In [FP2] we were close to half a second apart, maybe that could have three tenths maybe, but I don’t think we have half a second in the bag, so we’ll see. We’ll work on it and see if we can get something else out tonight.”
On the other side of the garage, George Russell did not enjoy as smooth a day as Hamilton, finishing 15th in FP1 and 13th in FP2. While the Mercedes driver says it is too early to draw any conclusions, he admits there are “positive signs”.
“I think, as we said yesterday, in Monaco: [it’s] such a unique track – it’s not really the place to assess gear updates,” Russell said. “We knew that going into the weekend.
“So…we’ll worry about that next weekend [in Spain] and focus on trying to improve around here, a really unique circuit.
“Qualifying is obviously the most important part of the weekend and qualifying is a part of the weekend where we usually struggle; We always do better on Sundays when you look at the last 18 months.
“So, we’ll have to try to figure some things out overnight. There are definitely some positive signs to take away from the session, definitely improved from FP1.
“It’s never easy at this venue… We’ll have to work on our qualifying pace for this event and re-evaluate the car globally next weekend.”