Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes has “progressed a lot” since moving to a more conventional sidepod concept in Monaco even if it remains well adrift of Formula 1 rivals Red Bull.
Mercedes debuted its new design earlier in the year after running a radical ‘zeropod’ philosophy from the dawn of the new regulations in 2022.
The German manufacturer felt the change was necessary in order to bolster its performance having suffered a difficult start to the season and, with the upgrade fitted, it finished second and third at the Spanish Grand Prix.
But while it seemed Mercedes would continue to claw back its deficit to runaway leaders Red Bull, the team still faces a considerable margin despite Hamilton since claiming two further podiums and a pole position in Hungary.
Hamilton, though, defended Mercedes’ progression, believing it now has a greater understanding of how to extract more performance out of the W14.
“I’ve been incredibly proud of everybody. Everyone has been working insanely hard,” Hamilton said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.
“We’ve been making big steps. I think the biggest step we took was when we got to Monaco and the car has really progressed a lot since then.
“We have a better understanding of where to position the car. It’s been a lot more consistent – podiums, top-five finishes – which has been great.
“And, generally, we’ve been getting solid, great reliability. So, there’s lots and lots of good bits.”
Hamilton singled out the areas Mercedes need to address, saying the car still lacks balance and downforce.
“The balance, we’ve still got to work on. And we need more downforce, as we always do,” he said.
“But I know everyone back at the factory is head-down focused on doing that.
“We’re just massively focused on getting second for the team in the constructors’ [championship] and [I’m] trying to get third [in the drivers’ standings].”
Mercedes headed into the summer break second in the constructors’ championship, 51 points ahead of Aston Martin.
Hamilton expects the battle behind Red Bull to remain close in the second half of the season with a potential shake-up in the competitive order.
“I don’t know how much developing people will be doing in the second part of the season, but I think there will be movement,” said Hamilton.
“I don’t know what happened to Aston and how they’ve taken a step back. But I’m sure McLaren was really strong in the second phase.
“Ferrari and we were very close so dependent on track, I’m sure there’ll be some movement in the positions. I hope that we can be a little better.”
