Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton hopes to be challenging for a ninth win at his home race at Silverstone next month.
The eight-time Silverstone winner seemed to have got on top of his car’s porpoising issue at Barcelona, but a week later, in Monaco, both Hamilton and teammate George Russell looked like they had bouncing issues again.
This upcoming weekend the F1 racing takes place at the fast Baku street circuit in Azerbaijan, which should give Mercedes a better idea of if the porpoising issue is now a thing of the past.
Lewis Hamilton
Challenge the top teams
Hamilton said he hopes the Mercedes car will challenge the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull at Silverstone.
“I hope by the time we get to Silverstone we will have the car as we want it, to be able to fight with Ferrari and Red Bull,” the seven-time champion says. “It would be nice if we can give them a run for their money at our home race. I know that work is going on tirelessly in the factory to make progress with the car. And I have no doubt we will get it right sooner or later.”
Mercedes engineering director Andrew Shovlin, though, is not so sure that Baku will be an improvement to their bouncing Monaco car troubles.
“Baku might present some similar challenges,” Shovlin admits. “We are working on areas to try and improve the ride, try and be able to run the car a bit closer to its optimum window. But we are well aware that in addition to adding base performance to the car, we’ve got to make it work over a wider range of circuits.
“So, these are all things that we are busy with in preparation for Baku but also longer-term because there are other challenging tracks that will come up. But all of those projects are being worked on really hard because the team and the drivers are desperate to get back to the front.”
