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Hamilton studied Verstappen during USGP sprint to help Mercedes development
Lewis Hamilton says the time spent close behind Max Verstappen in the sprint at the United States Grand Prix was productive as he watched where the Red Bull’s advantage is relative to Mercedes.
Verstappen started from pole and held off Charles Leclerc at Turn 1, with Hamilton then able to take advantage and also pass the Ferrari in the following corners to run second. After keeping pace with the Red Bull for a number of laps, Hamilton slowly faded but says he was paying close attention to Verstappen’s car and the way it was performing.
“I didn’t get that great a start but obviously it was quite aggressive into Turn 1 and quite a good battle with Charles,” Hamilton said. “After that the car was feeling pretty good so I was just attacking from the get go and [got] as close as I could while the car felt like that, but I just couldn’t push the gap enough to Max. Then, once I was out of his DRS, he just started eking away and cruising.
“Not that I haven’t seen it already this year, but it was a good position to be able to watch what Max’s car was doing and how it was behaving. I got to watch for a while and see where they are particularly strong, which we can obviously see in GPS, but still... At least we know where we are -- if there is anywhere we are stronger, and if we are weaker. I will download that to the team.”
Eventually finishing over 9s adrift in second place, Hamilton was coy on specific details about what he saw, but noted what an impressive job Red Bull has done and how tough he believes it will be to erase the gap completely over the winter.
“I was trying to get close enough!" he said. "Next time I will get one of those Go-Pro sticks! I learned that we have a lot of work to do -- everyone behind these guys have a lot of work to do. It is no small feat for us to truly catch them for next year. They will be progressing at a steep rate as they have got an amazing development team and that will make it even steeper for us to close that gap, but I am going to put 100 percent faith in my team that we can do it.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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