Mercedes trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin shed light on the turnaround that has seen Lewis Hamilton claim victory in two of the last three races.

It was only a month ago that Shovlin admitted that the seven-time world champion's driving style simply didn't suit the current ground effect cars, however dogged persistence and the willingness to experiment, by both the driver and his team, has seen Hamilton's fortunes undergo a dramatic turnaround.

"I think early on perhaps Lewis was finding the car more difficult to deal with," admits Shovlin. "One of the areas that we've improved with the car is being able to land the set-up in FP1. That's a good foundation to start building on performance and fine-tuning it helps your weekend enormously.

"In the early part of the year, we were making relatively small changes," he continues, "and suddenly the whole car balance left us and we were really struggling.

"So that certainly helped and it's probably fair to say that in the earlier races Lewis was finding it more difficult to set up than George."

In an effort to get to the root of the problem, both drivers ran experimental set-ups, as the German team sought to reveal the car's true potential.

"I think there's a certain driving style that suits these tyres," he admits. "You tend to find that the two drivers are never that far apart on set-up now, so once the car's in a good window the same thing's working pretty well for both of them. Between sessions they're studying what the other one's doing to try and find where the gains are.

"Through the year the two of them have been working together early on," he adds. "Neither of them wanted to be finishing where we were and they were able to help each other through trying different experiments with set-up and driving style.

"Overall you progress as a team and that's how a team with two drivers works."

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Tyrbiter, 08/08/2024 19:11

"@Chester If is F1 backwards, and it happened as it did because of a combination of luck and experience."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by kenji, 08/08/2024 3:03

"@ Chester...exactement mon ami. The real reason Hamilton bailed was becauase the writing was on the wall! Russel was the future and he wasn't prepared to cede his place as numer one in the team. "

Rating: Negative (-2) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by Chester, 07/08/2024 11:22

"Shovelin does realize that a water leak for Russell and a minuscule weight loss was the cause of two Hamilton wins, right? He could just as easily been second twice."

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by Wokingchap, 05/08/2024 10:47

""That's how a team with two drivers works."... exactly, well done.
There's some very famous drivers that would never had shared their specs, so very well done.
"

Rating: Positive (4) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Shovlin explains Hamilton's resurgence

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page