Lewis Hamilton is not certain on the upgrade Mercedes are to bring for the rest of the 2019 F1 season with Ferrari ruling out anything significant.
With three back to back victories since the summer break and a fourth almost in their grasp, Ferrari have bounced back well from the first half with some strategic upgrades on their car, which could be utilised very much for 2020 as well.
Looking at the better form of Ferrari, when asked Hamilton about their rival’s upgrades and what Mercedes plans to bring for the next few races – if any – he wasn’t too sure of how much the German manufacturer is keeping on board for 2019.
“Upgrades are something that takes months of preparation,” said Hamilton to FormulaRapida.net/IndiaInF1.com. “We cannot decide that we need an upgrade for next week right now as it requires months and months of planning.
“I am sure we do have upgrades coming at some stage, but I don’t know when. I don’t know how much is coming either over the last races, but we know that these next few races are going to be tough.”
Toto Wolff had similar tunes and agreed that the focus is shifting more towards 2020 already which is why the team decided to not be as aggressive with upgrades for 2019 as they did at the start of the season in the first half.
He though revealed that they will have something for Suzuka but not for big impact. “That’s the way it was planned [with less updates],” he said. “You’ve got to manage your resource in the right way, also looking into next year.
“That is something which we consider very carefully. There will be a little thing in Suzuka [though], that we are just interested to explore. But not the big steps that we had when we pushed very hard until the summer.”
Considering the run Ferrari has had since the summer break, both Wolff and Hamilton did took it as a slight concern for 2020 and so the plans for next year has to be right on their side to be able to challenge from the onset with stable regulations.
Even at the Ferrari camp, it is a similar situation with focus more on 2020 with the parts they are running at this juncture. Mattia Binotto confirmed that they are trying to bring things which can help them in 2020 and their season becomes better.
Meanwhile, Laurent Mekies confirmed that Ferrari ins’t bringing anything significant for rest of the season as the focus is more on 2020 and also 2021. “I think it’s that time of the year when we are all switching our attentions to 2020,” he said.
“So, I don’t think there will be anything significant from now until the end of the season. On top of that, you also need to start to thinking about what’s going to happen next [in 2021]. So the short answer is there won’t be anything significant anymore.”
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