Both Mercedes drivers, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, complained about the car’s performance in the first and second free practice sessions at the Australian Grand Prix.
The practice sessions came 756 days after the 2020 race was cancelled at the last minute because of the COVID-19 pandemic with spectators lining up at the gates for the first practice session on March 13 of that year.
Lewis Hamilton set the seventh-fastest time in the opening practice but then he came down to P13 in FP2. The gap to the top grew from 1.2 to 1.5 seconds. The seven-time world champion seemed frustrated as he spoke about the car after the sessions.
“It was a difficult session. It’s just nothing you change on the car makes a difference at the moment. That’s the difficult thing. You get in very optimistic and then you make changes and then it doesn’t seem to be wanting to improve,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.
The 37-year-old further added that Mercedes made some changes going into P2 but it ‘ended up being a bit harder for me’.
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“I don’t know, it’s just a tricky car,” Hamilton said.
Mercedes have had issues with the aerodynamic rule changes this year. Their cars have been bouncing, or rather porpoising on straights.
Hamilton’s teammate, George Russell, was 11th quickest in the second practice.
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“We’re not in the position where we want to be. We need to keep digging into the data and understand. We’ve sort of gone from left, right and centre with the set-up and all have resulted in a similar outcome so we need to try and get on top of things and understand why,” Russell told Sky Sports.
Meanwhile, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was fastest in Friday’s second practice session for the Australian Grand Prix, with Formula One champion Max Verstappen right behind in second.
