Lewis Hamilton finally upbeat about W15 but doesn’t want to ‘f it up’ with changes

Lewis Hamilton has hailed opening practice at the Japanese Grand Prix as the “best session” Mercedes have had so far during the 2024 F1 season.

After enduring a difficult opening three races, Mercedes enjoyed a positive showing at Suzuka as George Russell and Hamilton finished fourth and fifth in a dry first practice.

Hamilton then finished second-fastest in a rain-hit FP2 but lap times were largely unrepresentative in a session that saw very limited running.

The seven-time world champion said it was “the best the car has felt” this season and is confident Mercedes have started the weekend with a strong baseline.

“It was a great, a really good session for us. It was the best session that we’ve had this year. It’s the best the car has felt so far, so it felt really positive,” Hamilton said.

“I was really excited because this is a circuit that every driver loves to drive. In the last couple of years we’ve had a really difficult car and balance to drive here.

“And given the difficult last few races we’ve had, great work has been done this past week and we just seem to have hit the ground a bit more in a sweeter spot. So I haven’t really made any changes since.”

Hamilton is wary about making too many changes heading into qualifying.

“I think we’ve got a better baseline to start from, so as long as we don’t make too many changes and f it up,” he added. “I think probably just stay where we are.”

Teammate Russell echoed Hamilton’s early optimism, saying Mercedes “definitely performed better than expected” on Friday.

“That was a pleasant surprise,” Russell explained. “The car was feeling really nice to drive and Lewis and I were really happy with the balance.

“It has been performing better when it’s slightly colder, but we’ve been doing a lot of test items to try and make that car a little more consistent when conditions are variable. So time will tell.

“FP2 was definitely a miss for everybody as we had some interesting things to try but that’s the nature of F1 sometimes.”