Lewis Hamilton and George Russell faced a challenging start at the British Grand Prix, as they were both outside the top 10 in the practice sessions. Hamilton, recognizing a problem within Mercedes, revealed that he was continuously struggling with the same issues throughout Friday.
Hamilton was 12th and 15th in the two practice sessions at Silverstone – over one second off the pace compared to pace-setter Max Verstappen.
“Car-wise, we are battling the same thing the majority of the time. It’s a tough car to drive. No matter what we do to set it up, it continues to be a tough car to drive,” said Hamilton.
“On a single lap I didn’t feel any improvement between tyres, which shows something is wrong. We are missing something. The long run didn’t seem to be too bad, so that’s a positive at least.”
Carlos Sainz was told about Hamilton’s long run pace on the softs and the Ferrari driver responded “that is quick” towards the end of Practice Two. However, the seven-time world champion did not have the same optimism.
“It didn’t feel particularly great, but it most have felt worse for others because they potentially weren’t as quick, or had more degradation,” he said.
“The last part of my run was starting to be more consistent for whatever reason. It could be wind or balance or me getting used to the balance. This track is all about trying to weight these scales the whole way around and making compromises here and there.
“There’s such a fine edge on the balance and such a big balance window. It’s back and forth. It’s like one end to the other end of the spectrum from braking to turning to mid to exit of every corner, so it’s a good battle.”
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