Hamilton likes to refute the “myth” about the Mercedes F1 chassis swap

Before the Paul Ricard race weekend, Hamilton and Bottas swapped the chassis as part of the planned rotation of Mercedes during the season.

Bottas impressed during the entire practice session on Friday, beating Hamilton in both sessions and leading Mercedes again in the last practice session on Saturday morning.

Hamilton struggled more in the race on Friday, which led to questions as to whether the chassis swap had changed the performance of the two Mercedes drivers.

But Hamilton managed to string a quick lap in the final phase of qualifying to secure second place on the grid behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and relegate Bottas to third place.

Hamilton said it was a “mentally really tough weekend” to get the Mercedes car into a good performance window.

“I was generally dissatisfied at the car weekend,” said Hamilton in an interview with Paul di Resta after qualifying.

“I saw you make up a myth and so I was happy to prove the opposite – the quality of the work our engineers do, you know, all cars are exactly the same.

“Congratulations to Max, he did a great job today. They were incredibly quick. You can see they have a new engine this weekend, not a new spec or as far as I know, but still they are quick on the straight.

“I think there was a lot of time on the straight today so we have a race ahead of us and we love the fight. So we’ll just keep pushing, keep fighting and give our all. “

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Hamilton enters Sunday’s race just four points behind Verstappen at the top of the drivers’ standings, and their title fight is expected to rage throughout the year.

Although Hamilton felt unsure about Mercedes’ long-term pace during Friday’s practice run, he took confidence in the changes that have been made to his car since then.

“In training it was a real struggle and our long-term pace I think [Red Bull] were a tent or two-tenths faster than us in the long run, ”said Hamilton.

“But my car is now in a completely different place. So I stay hopeful and of course do everything I can. We are in second place, you have a chance to fight at least until the first round and tomorrow there will probably be an interesting strategy.

“Perhaps I do not know [there is] Rain so you can see the rain masters doing their thing. I’m excited.”