Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes’ enhancements had minimal impact on their overall performance at the F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Mercedes unveiled the most recent batch of modifications to their troublesome and inconsistent W15 in Imola, following the first installment of an upgrade package that debuted in Miami two weeks prior.
Hamilton finished sixth in Sunday’s grand prix, one position ahead of his two-stopping teammate George Russell, with the front-running Mercedes 35 seconds behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who won for the fifth time in seven races.
The seven-time world champion downplayed the importance of the post-race updates, claiming they made “not a big difference”.
Hamilton continued, “They are little steps, but very small.
“My pace during the second stint was equivalent to the men at the front. But I believe we are still missing two or three tenths.”
Despite the seeming small step forward, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff stated that he is “more confident” that his team is not on the proper development path following two painful seasons of lackluster competitiveness.
“I think that what we are seeing on the car now is that those incremental gains that we are bringing rather than a miracle update are getting the car in a better balance window and making the car just have more performance,” he said.
Hamilton admits that gaining a tenth or tenth and a half of a second is not enough to outperform other teams in the race. However, he is confident that the team is on the right track. During the race, Hamilton ran wide at Acque Minerali and took a trip through.
