HAMILTON’S ‘PROBLEMS’ WON’T BE FIXED THIS YEAR
Mercedes ace will continue with car in F1 final stages
LEWIS Hamilton doesn’t think the weaknesses of his Mercedes F1 car will be addressed until next season as he chases a fourth driver’s title.
Mercedes have struggled on lowerspeed circuits this season, with Ferrari claiming the top two places on tracks such as Monaco and Hungary.
Although Hamilton claimed a surprise win in another slower race, Singapore, at the weekend — after the Ferraris crashed into each other at the first corner - he feels there are still fundamental problems with his drive.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas ace told motorsport.com: “We understand what we can do, potentially for the future, to make it better.
“It won’t happen with this car; potentially for the next one.
“We’ve just got to make sure when we do it that it doesn’t make it worse, because it’s actually pretty good elsewhere.”
Ferrari out-qualified Mercedes in Singapore — Sebastian Vettel took pole while Hamilton was fifth, 0.635 seconds slower than the German.
However Hamilton took the lead after the first corner chaos and held it comfortably until the end in wet conditions on the street circuit.
The British driver admitted the win was an unexpected bonus, and Mercedes have to build on it as he takes a 28-point lead over Vettel in the championship.
He said: “I think this weekend really showed the strengths and weaknesses of our car and the characteristics.
“In the dry conditions we were nowhere, so to come to probably our weakest circuit, perhaps second to Monaco, and win is obviously a great result.
“We’ve got to stay on our toes and keep trying to extract everything out of this car.”
Unlike Singapore, which was an anticiimax after an accident involving Ferrari cars, Hamilton is set for an exciting duel with Sebastian Vettel at the Petronas F1 Malaysian Grand Prix next weekend.
So, Malaysia and Singapore’s fans should gear up for the action at Sepang,