Hamilton confident Mercedes has leveled up everywhere

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes has made a step forward in all areas after qualifying a little over 0.1s from pole position at the United States Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen’s deleted lap time was only 0.005s faster than Charles Leclerc, with Lando Norris second ahead of Hamilton, meaning four teams were covered by 0.144s. After such a close fight, Hamilton suggests Mercedes’ new floor has helped close the gap at the front and upped overall performance.

“Good session for us,” Hamilton said. “Really grateful for the improvements the team have made with the car. They’ve worked so hard to bring some upgrades and for us to be this close to McLaren, Ferrari and even the Red Bulls is a showing of how hard everyone is working.

“The car feels almost the same, it’s just leveled up pretty much everywhere.

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“Too early to say [if a win is on the cards]. None of us have done any long running so I have no idea. Maybe with the Red Bull not in the top three it makes it a better and closer battle...because they’re often quite a bit ahead and disappear into the distance. Hopefully the three of us can have a tight battle.”

With technical director James Allison having described the new floor as a “bellwether” for 2024, Hamilton disputed that claim but says it is a positive step forward.

“I don’t know really if it’s a signifier of anything for next year," he said. "As we continue to experiment, we get more and more knowledge of where we’re going, where we’re routing the flow of the car. The floor is not a huge amount different. There’s always hype around someone’s upgrade, but the rest of the car is exactly the same and there’s lots and lots of areas where we can improve.

“But this is an improvement and it’s one of the first upgrades that I’ve actually felt over the last two years, so that’s a positive. We just need two or three times this step to put us in super-competitive mode, which I believe the guys can do.”