After the sprint race at the Shanghai International Circuit we saw a very happy Lewis Hamilton. The seven-time world champion seemed to have regained enthusiasm after a very difficult start to the season.
“I am very, very happy and grateful,” Hamilton begins his review of the sprint race. “Obviously we couldn’t compete with Red Bull today. But this is a huge step we are taking, a huge improvement.”
“The rain yesterday during sprint qualifying obviously contributed to this result. The race was tough and if I had been further back I probably would have had more problems making progress. But I learned a lot about the car today during this short stint so I’m already looking forward to tomorrow’s race.”
With the knowledge gained during the sprint race, Hamilton hopes that the Mercedes W15 can be improved somewhat by qualifying for the race on Sunday, although Hamilton realizes that Mercedes is still behind the competition.
“We’re still not as fast over a hot lap as the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, and I think the McLarens are certainly ahead of us too,” said Hamilton. “Maybe also the Aston Martins. We may be very close to the Astons, we will see today.”
“I don’t expect us to be on the front row of the grid. Fortunately, we can make adjustments so hopefully we can improve the car during the three hours prior to qualifying and hopefully we will have a better qualifying than in the past.”
Mega job LH pic.twitter.com/tZxgdkvh8A
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) April 20, 2024