Following his “best session” in the W15 vehicle at Suzuka, Lewis Hamilton has issued a warning to Mercedes not to make “too many changes and mess up” his Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
In his last year as a Mercedes driver, Hamilton has had the worst start to a season ever, placing no better than eighth in the first three races. In February, Hamilton revealed that he will join Ferrari in 2025.
Hamilton cautions Mercedes not to make too many W15 alterations during the Japanese Grand Prix.
At the final race in Australia, Hamilton’s inconsistent start to the season reached a new low when his engine failed after just 15 laps.
Following his elimination from the second qualifying round, the seven-time World Champion acknowledged over the Melbourne weekend that he was “the least confident” he had ever been in the Mercedes.
At Suzuka on Friday, Hamilton had a far better performance. In FP1, he was placed fifth, just half a second behind Max Verstappen’s pace-setting Red Bull. In the rain-affected afternoon session, he improved to second.
He said: “It was a great session, it was a really good session for us.
“That was the best session of the year and the best the car has felt so far this year,” the driver said. Overall, quite good thus far.
“Every driver loves to drive this track, so I was pretty enthusiastic about it. We’ve had some extremely challenging cars and balancing issues here over the past few years.
We just seem to have hit the ground a little more in a sweeter area this last week, and amazing work has been done given the challenging last few races we’ve had.
“So I haven’t really made any changes since [FP1].
“I believe we have a stronger base or platform to work from, provided we don’t muck it up by making too many modifications.
“I think we should probably just hang out here and hope for a nice weekend.”
A significant lack of running in FP2 has been attributed to a rule change for the F1 2024 season, which states that teams will no longer receive spare tires in the case that a session is deemed rainy.
“It’s a shame we didn’t get that [FP2] session,” Hamilton said, casting doubt on the rationale behind the regulation change.
Nobody goes out and drives on the intermediate now that the tire rule has been modified.
“To be honest, it defies logic, but whatever.”
