Lewis Hamilton haunted by “bouncing” return: “We can’t get rid of it…”

Lewis Hamilton has called on Mercedes to fix the “intense bouncing” that he says plagued his F1 car during Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying.

The seven-time world champion struggled throughout qualifying in Jeddah on his way to a disappointing P8, one place behind Mercedes teammate George Russell, and over eight-tenths adrift of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who claimed another dominant pole position.

After qualifying, Hamilton revealed that the bouncing issue which hampered previous Mercedes F1 cars in recent years, had returned with the team’s revamped W15.

“It’s similar to previous years, I would say,” Hamilton told Sky.

“There are so many elements of this car which are better, it’s just we’re being hindered by the bouncing that we have.

“The bouncing we have through 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, which I think probably effected George. It’s something they’ve not been able to fix.

“We made some changes overnight and this morning the car felt so much better, I was regaining this confidence again and then we get to qualifying and it disappears.

“But George was doing a great job. He’s a lot more comfortable in the car. A bit similar to the last couple of years I would say. But we will keep our heads down and keeping working.

“I got a bit of a better feeling as to where the issue is coming from, so I will try and address it with the team.”

When asked what he thinks is causing it, Hamilton, who is leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari next season, replied: “We've tried every set-up change. We can't get rid of it. It's difficult to explain it.

"We had some bouncing in Bahrain but nowhere near as intense as here.

"That first sector is super high-speed with a lot of yaw in the car and a lot of lateral load and the bouncing really offsets the car quite a bit.

"If you imagine when the car goes up and down at the back, your balance shifts forwards and rearwards.

"If you are doing that at 160 or 170mpm, correcting that each time...the others like Max are flat through six, seven and eight  and the balance is just stable. That's what we are working towards.

"We've got to fix it. It's three years in a row. We've got to get on top of it."