Hamilton reveals how Mercedes improved the balance of his W15 during the race.
Having battled with his team-mate George Russell all through the second half of the race, Lewis Hamilton has revealed that a tweak to the front wing of his car completely changed his feeling behind the wheel of his W15.
28 Oct 2024
Balazs Szabo
F1 Technical

Reflecting on his race, Hamilton noted: "We ultimately moved forward and brought home good points today for the team. We weren’t looking so racy in the first stint; I didn’t have enough front-wing in the car and was suffering with lots of understeer.”

"We were able to improve the balance at our second stop and our pace got better. Even if we had enjoyed that speed in the first stint though, we still wouldn’t have had the pace to challenge those ahead for the podium. P4 and P5 is still slightly better than we predicted today though so we can be pleased with our afternoon.”

"This hasn’t been the smoothest weekend for the team, but we’ve gathered a lot of information across both specifications. We can now analyse that data and evaluate the best way forward for next weekend in Brazil and the rest of the season. Hopefully we can get the car in a slightly better spot for Interlagos and take the fight to the Ferraris and McLarens."

‘Improved the balance of his W15’;

https://www.f1technical.net/news/25729


Lewis Hamilton blames front wing misjudgement for “really bad” opening stint
Lewis Hamilton reflects on a "fun" race at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
28 Oct 2024
Connor McDonagh
Crash.Net

Reflecting on the race in Mexico, Hamilton said: “Yeah, it was fun. I had fun today. I had a good start, I had a really bad first stint, took too much front wing out of the car, I had massive, massive understeer.”

“I was like, damn. Because you have to basically guesstimate where you're going to be with the front wing, and I had a lot less than George [Russell]. But the laps to the grid, it felt like it was the right thing, and it was clearly not.”

“And after my stop, I was able to rectify it, and then after that I had a much better pace, and I was able to push and keep going, and we stopped a little bit early as well, compared to what I had planned and stuff. We got good points.”

‘Front wing misjudgement’;

https://www.crash.net/f1/news/105921...-opening-stint


Russell’s race performance compromised by front wing damage
28/10/2024
Phillip van Osten
F1i.com

Mercedes’ trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin reckoned that a bump hit by Russell had caused the collapse of one of the wing’s flaps. “George was hindered when the front wing flap collapsed after he hit a bump during an overtake at the start of the second stint,” Shovlin explained.

“Despite that, he still maintained good enough pace to bring it home in fifth. We let the drivers race each other throughout, but that meant that Lewis’ tyres were past their best once he made it into clear air.”

‘Performance compromised’;

https://f1i.com/news/523122-russells...ng-damage.html


Transcript: Toto Wolff, Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team
October 28, 2024
Barry Ritholtz
The Big Picture (Weblog)

00:00:15 [Speaker Changed] What can I say about this week’s guest, Toto Wolf. Principal, CEO of Mercedes Formula one race team. What an incredible career. From a winning racer to an investor and venture capitalist to a, a person who just kind of became a principal at Williams. And then eventually after that team, surprisingly began to win, got recruited over to Mercedes where he has put together a fantastic track record.

00:01:40 [Speaker Changed] So yeah, I was born and raised in Vienna and went to the Vienna University of Economics, but actually raced in junior formulas at the time and wanted to be a race driver. And when that ended abruptly run out of money and we had a very bad spell of accidents in Formula One. So I lost a sponsor. I decided I’m gonna quit both. I’m gonna quit Uni Uni and I’m gonna quit racing and launch myself into, you know, working.

‘Put together a fantastic track record’;

https://ritholtz.com/2024/10/transcr...olff-mercedes/


Lewis Hamilton makes confession after Mexico GP with Mercedes off Ferrari pace
Lewis Hamilton qualified sixth and finished fourth at the Mexican Grand Prix, benefitting from penalties for Max Verstappen before overtaking Mercedes team-mate George Russell
28 Oct 2024
Daniel Moxon
The Mirror

Lewis Hamilton: "I am really grateful for that and happy with the performance in general. I got a good start and then I had a lot of understeer because... my fault, but I took too much front wing out of the car. And I had knocked out the front tyres basically in that first stint. After the changes, after the pit stop, [it was] much, much better.”

"But it was a really, really insightful and informative race because I could feel exactly where the car was working and where it was not. It is very, very clear in my mind where the car is giving up and I could see the difference between George and I when I am behind.”

"So it will be interesting to see... they have now all of this information from both of our cars running. So good points, good data for both of us and hopefully [it will] put us in a better position for the next race."

‘Confession’;

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formu...ssell-33984725


Lewis Hamilton: Mercedes Mexico battle highlighted F1 package differences
28 Oct 2024
Dan Lawrence
Motorsport Week

“We got a lot of information,” Hamilton told select media including Motorsport Week post-race. “I could see on his car where he was better than me, and I’m sure hopefully he’ll be able to see where he’s better than me.”

“Package-wise, hopefully [the team has] lots of data, so we’ll figure out who starts what next race.” The past two weekends have been difficult for Mercedes to gauge where the upgrades are.

‘Package differences’;

https://www.motorsportweek.com/2024/...e-differences/