Breaking news
Formula 1 Japanese GP
Hamilton "hesitant" over team's preferred Suzuka aero strategy
Lewis Hamilton says he and the Mercedes Formula 1 team will decide on Thursday evening whether to run the team's latest aerodynamic package during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.
Jack Cozens
Edited: Oct 5, 2017, 10:41 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Mercedes introduced an upgrade ahead of last weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix, which both drivers used in free practice.
But Hamilton reverted to the previous-specification package ahead of qualifying and went on to secure pole before finishing second, while teammate Valtteri Bottas said he regretted sticking with the update after winding up fifth in qualifying.
Hamilton said he and the team were still split on which direction to take at Suzuka.
"It's not decided at the moment, it's a constant discussion," said Hamilton. "The guys want to go one direction and I'm hesitant and more feeling for another way.
"I've got a huge amount of trust and belief in the team and I know they want to win just as much as me so collectively we'll come to an agreement and make sure it's the right decision.
"It's important to always challenge each other. As a driver I'm always challenging them.
"They'll have numbers that will give this and I'll still challenge it even if it's a perfect result because the perfect number doesn't always necessarily feel the greatest on track.
"I heard it's going to rain tomorrow [Friday] so that's going to make it a little bit difficult for us to feel whatever set-up we do have.
"We'll probably make a decision by the end of the day - we've got another meeting at the end of the day, so probably by six o'clock we will have decided."
Hamilton said in the wake of the Sepang race he had a clear idea of the set-up direction Mercedes needed to take in Japan, but added on Thursday he was still struggling to predict what he could expect from his W08 prior to most weekends.
"I'm confident in the car working at some stage," he said. "It's just this deep into the season that I still have no idea where it's going to be good, where it's going to be great - like Silverstone - or where it's going to be a real struggle like Malaysia or Singapore.
"You look at the last one [Malaysia], we were far off, and all of a sudden we got pole position. I managed to pull out a lap and I didn't even know where it came from.
"If we were going into the race beyond this and we knew what was going to happen it would be kind of dull. I like that we're arriving and we don't know. There's some stories that we've been thrown off the bull, that we're on the back foot - we're not.
"We're still leading the championship, we've still got a great car, each race is just really trying to understand more about the car because there's constantly something new thrown in the mix, [that] can catch us off guard."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Ferrari not planning major shake-up despite bad run - Vettel
Next article "On the market": What are the odds of F1 star Daniel Ricciardo moving on?
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jack Cozens
Hamilton secures BTCC return with Team Hard
BTCC
BTCC Feb 21, 2020
Hamilton secures BTCC return with Team Hard
Ekstrom joins Cupra for first Pure ETCR season
ETCR
ETCR Feb 21, 2020
Ekstrom joins Cupra for first Pure ETCR season
Huff announces he won't race in WTCR in 2020
WTCR
WTCR Feb 20, 2020
Huff announces he won't race in WTCR in 2020
More from
Lewis Hamilton
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Formula 1
Formula 1 12 h
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 d
Max Verstappen on Ferrari clashes: "I would never sign two number-one drivers"
More from
Mercedes
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mexican GP
12 h
The Kimi Antonelli you don't know: Inside the Mercedes garage with F1's new world champion
Latest news
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
19 min
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
1 h
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 5 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe