Hamilton concedes car is ‘night and day’ different to Austin as Mercedes have ‘a lot of work to do’ in Mexico

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell agree that there’s untapped potential inside the W14, however each admitted that Mercedes have loads of work to do in a single day after a troublesome first day of working in Mexico.

Hamilton was disqualified in Austin however confirmed a great flip of tempo in his upgraded W14 all through the weekend. Nonetheless, he says that the automobile he drove on Friday feels “evening and day” completely different to the one he drove in COTA.

READ MORE: Perez believes Pink Bull are in a ‘good place’ for the weekend regardless of compromised first day in Mexico

His quickest lap was over a second slower than that of pace-setter Max Verstappen’s time in FP1 and, though he confirmed an improved flip of tempo within the second follow hour, he completed simply over three-tenths off the Dutch racer in seventh.

When requested about his first day of working, Hamilton stated: “Not that nice. Dodgy, not dodgy, however not the best. A little bit of a battle within the automobile as we speak.”

Explaining why that was the case, Hamilton added: “I imply the automobile is evening and day completely different in comparison with final week. And yeah, I don’t know what to say, you simply by no means know what you’re going to get with this one.

“Some days she’s nice and a few days she’s not. I feel it’s exhausting to extract the lap, I feel there may be positively efficiency there. It’s simply exhausting to extract it and it’s fairly peaky this weekend with the aero map or no matter it could be.

“So, we’re going to work on it in a single day however positively it wasn’t a enjoyable day in comparison with FP1 in Austin. We’re a bit off however hopefully in a single day we will discover one thing and tomorrow the automobile might be higher to drive.”

READ MORE: Norris assesses possibilities of difficult Verstappen as he hails ‘superb lap’ in Mexico Friday follow

Requested what he can discover in a single day forward of qualifying on Saturday, Hamilton stated: “I’m unsure. Once more, we by no means know what to anticipate with this automobile, possibly we make the adjustments, and we’ll decide that tempo up.

“I feel there was positively some efficiency in there to be nearer, possibly within the prime three. However we’ve acquired to determine how one can make it simpler for us to extract that efficiency, in order that’s what we’ll be engaged on tonight.”

Russell, then again, missed out on working in FP1 after rookie driver Frederik Vesti went behind the wheel of his automobile. He returned within the second follow hour and wound-up tenth, however he believes there may be a lot to enhance upon forward of the weekend.

FP2: Verstappen quickest in drizzle-hit second follow as Norris and Leclerc spherical out prime three in Mexico Metropolis

“Little bit of a tough session,” stated Russell. “There’s rain round right here and there, now we have the prototype Pirelli tyre, and it’s a very tight area on the market. I feel there may be potential. I feel we’ve acquired loads of work to do in a single day.

“It’s very tight, particularly with some surprising automobiles, to be trustworthy, some automobiles within the top-10 that we weren’t anticipating to be there. However we really feel like we’ve acquired quite a bit to enhance, however we’ve acquired the chance to do it as effectively.”

Requested what he was trying to enhance upon particularly, Russell answered: “Sooner race automobile to be trustworthy. We’ve been most likely within the fallacious window as we speak, I feel. Lewis and I have been working two completely different setups and we most likely each weren’t in the correct window.

READ MORE: Giving youth its likelihood – why we’d like the FP1 younger drivers rule and who’s doing what in 2023

“So, that’s given us a sign that most likely midway between each is the correct place to be. So, that’s irritating within the second to have a damaging automobile and never have the most effective of days.

“However by way of these troublesome moments you study most likely greater than when the automobile is in a greater place. That’s what follow is all about.”