‘Something is wrong’ - Hamilton reveals insight into Mercedes’ balance struggles

Hamilton was 12th and 15th as both Mercedes drivers finished outside the top 10 in FP1 and FP2 on what was a tricky opening day of running for the German manufacturer at Silverstone. 

Despite bringing upgrades to their underperforming W14 challenger, Hamilton stressed the car is still “tough to drive”. 

“Car wise, we’re battling the same thing most of the time,” the seven-time world champion said. “It’s a tough car to drive. 

“No matter what we do to set-up, it continues to be a tough car to drive. On a single lap I didn’t feel any improvement between tyres, which shows that something is wrong. We’re missing something. 

“On the long run it didn’t seem to be too bad, so that’s a positive at least.” 

Hamilton was more competitive during his long runs on soft tyres but said “it didn’t feel particularly great” from the cockpit. 

“It didn’t feel particularly great, if I’m being honest,” Hamilton said. “But it must have felt worse for others because they weren’t as quick or potentially had more deg. 

“My last run was starting to feel more consistent, for whatever reason. It might have been wind, it might have been balance, or me getting used to balance. 

“This track is really about trying to weigh the scales the whole way around and making compromises here and there. There’s such a fine edge on the balance and such a big balance window. 

“It’s back and forth, it’s never just here and you can just drive it. It’s like one end to the other end of the spectrum, from braking to turn in, to mid, to the exit of every corner. So it’s a good battle.” 

Asked if he knows how to get the balance in the right window, Hamilton replied: “No. Me and George were just talking and he’s one way, he’s over here with the set-up, I’m over here. 

“He was like ‘I’m thinking of coming to where you are but your lap time is then slow’ and I’m like ‘I was thinking of coming to where you are’. 

“But we’ll try and work on it tonight and Mick [Schumacher] will do some work on the sim tonight. Hopefully we will come up with something for tomorrow.”