Lewis Hamilton talks about some of the issues he was facing in F1 Azerbaijan GP in otherwise a solid end after an average start.
Mercedes’ Hamilton had a bit of up and down F1 Azerbaijan GP where he initially started off well but the safety car period saw him lose the gained ground after he stopped just before that period. He was certainly agitated losing those places.
But the re-start saw and subsequent laps then had him regain some of the lost ground, even though he couldn’t clear Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in the end. During his chase, there was some talk around his brakes which he was onto on the radio.
His brakes were overheating but he couldn’t understand it straight up. He also needed more power in order to put the pressure on Sainz ahead. “Brakes were overheating, and the image was up, and it meant I couldn’t see tyre temperatures,” revealed Hamilton. “So that’s the thing I was trying to turn off.
“Nothing went wrong but I just I wanted more power. A driver always wants more power. And I think ultimately they shortened the DRS this year down the straight, I don’t quite know why they did that. We’ve always had great racing where the DRS was. By the time you switched the DRS on, it was too late,” summed up Hamilton.
Losing the places due to safety car wasn’t ideal certainly, but he didn’t want to get bogged down by that. His mood was a bit down on Saturday and mid-point in the race, but he was pumped up after Sunday, having finished sixth. “Naturally, because so much work goes into the weekend, and then the sprint was a difficult day where you went backwards.
“And then in the race I was hoping for a better day and then I lost so many places. I lost five places or whatever it was. So that’s definitely a kick in the teeth. But then I was like, well, it is what it is. I think the race shows that the hunger is there. And once I get
that confidence in that car, the pace will come out.
“It wasn’t ideal, but obviously then got caught up with the safety car. But I couldn’t get bogged down in that frustration and I’ve lost all those positions, I just had to keep my head down and get focused on attacking, and that’s what I did. I got it right and got my head down and got right back in the race.
“I really enjoyed those battles. Really continuously proud of my team for just keeping my head down. We didn’t have the pace that we had in the last race, which is obviously not the greatest, but there’s no lack of motivation in this team. We’re all super hungry, we’re just working towards getting those upgrades. So I think this is the beginning of something hopefully better in the next coming races,” summed up Hamilton.
