01 June 2023 , 17:28
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Lewis Hamilton admitted his Mercedes team did not get "the step forward we were hoping for" from their most recent round of car upgrades.
The Silver Arrows hoped to be back at the very front of the grid this year, but so far the 2023 season has been largely forgettable. Mercedes stuck with their 'zeropod' concept for the first few rounds of this campaign but there very quickly came an acceptance that a change of course was required.
In Monaco last weekend, Mercedes turned heads by arriving with a more orthodox aerodynamic concept. Those upgrades were intended to appear at Imola a week earlier but, because of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix's cancellation, they debuted in the principality instead.
The tight street circuit meant little data could be gathered, so this weekend's race in Barcelona provides the team with the first real opportunity to put the W14's new design through its paces. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, though, Hamilton appeared keen to manage expectations.
"Well, it's not the step forward that we were hoping for," said the seven-time world champion. He did go on, however, to clarify that is because there are further upgrades planned for coming races which are more likely to have an effect in terms of closing the performance gap to runaway leaders Red Bull.
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He added: "The true step forward we're hoping for is, there's been around a one-second delta [to Red Bull] in race trim, for example. We haven't covered that with this step, but it is a step in the right direction.
Sidepods returned to the Mercedes cars in Monaco last weekend (Hasan Bratic/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)"What I felt last weekend was I felt a little bit more confident in the car, more ability to be able to commit to the corner. So, I'm hoping that at this track, that's the same, but hopefully better. There's a lot of medium and high-speed corners.
"I'm hoping the flow of the car is better. Maybe in following, we can follow closer. There's a huge amount of work that's gone into this and we're hoping that it puts us on the right track. We're changing train tracks. But putting us on the track that can lead to that second."
He went on to add: "When you bring upgrades, naturally you should be progressing forwards and the fact is it is an improvement, it's just not the improvement that we had dreamed of. But it's one step at a time. I don't feel any negativity towards it. I'm grateful we have it.
"Partly, it's because I understand how much work has gone into making these parts. The rush that has gone on, the amount of work, everyone is hugely flat out and really hungry to move the car in the right direction. So, I would say that I'm just hopeful that I puts us on a better track that can progress from here on."