Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he feels “super happy” with Mercedes’ upgrade after enjoying a positive Friday Practice for 2022 Spanish Grand Prix.
Mercedes introduced an aerodynamic upgrade for this weekend’s Spanish GP which seemed to benefit both drivers as George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished second and third respectively in FP2, to conclude a positive Friday Practice with minimal porpoising.
Hamilton consequently felt “super happy” with the Silver Arrows’ progress but admitted that there is still work to do to catch up with Ferrari and Red Bull.
Porpoising though is now less of an issue which has pleased Hamilton as he explained post FP2; “It’s the first time we’ve driven down the straight without bouncing; we still have some, but it’s way better.”
Hamilton also spoke of his belief that Mercedes can qualify well in Barcelona as he continued; “We’re starting to eke into the potential of the car. It remains tough out there but much nicer to drive than it has been before. We’ve brought a few upgrades and we now need to fine tune them.
“We have a lot of data to go through to position the car, I think we can get it into an even better place for tomorrow to hopefully tap on the heels of the guys in front.”
Russell meanwhile felt that his car “is definitely reacting differently” around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya compared to in Miami, although he believes that Mercedes still need to “dial out” porpoising through the corners now that it isn’t an issue on straights.
Looking ahead to Qualifying, Russell though believes that Mercedes aren’t set to fight for pole as he commented: “With the differences in power modes it is difficult to tell where we are on true pace, Ferrari and Red Bull looked to be in their lowest power modes.”
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