Hamilton "tried something completely different" in Abu Dhabi
Lewis Hamilton has confirmed that he experimented with a different set-up approach this weekend at Abu Dhabi, in an unsuccessful attempt to halt Nico Rosberg’s pole position streak.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W06
XPB Images
Hamilton has complained since Singapore that his car's balance hasn't been to his liking, as changes were made there during Mercedes's worst grand prix weekend of the season.
He tried a new approach this weekend in the Abu Dhabi season finale, but it wasn't enough to halt Rosberg's run of poles.
"It's just a balance thing," said Hamilton of his deficit. "It's been different for a few races now. I did my best; we worked as hard as we could with the engineers to try and go around it, try something different – we've tried something completely different this weekend and… so-so.
"Generally it gets a bit better in the race. I'm struggling on the edge with the car, I'm a lot more comfortable in the beginning [of races].
"I said coming into this weekend trying to make some changes – disadvantages myself by taking something off my car that was a benefit, but at the end of the day I wasn't good enough.
"I'd much rather be on pole, of course, and I was working as hard as I could towards that, but Nico did a great job."
Still positive for the race
Hamilton believes he can end the season on a high with another victory tomorrow to cap his title-winning season in style.
"I'm going to try as hard as I can to get a good start tomorrow, I've got a lot of British flags here, a lot of support, so I'll see what I can do from there," he said.
"It is tough to overtake here, as although you've got the DRS zone down the back straight, you can't follow [closely] through Turns 2 and 3. So the gap gets pulled out there."
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