Hamilton: Whatever we do with W13, nothing works

Mercedes racers are not very hopeful about the outlook this weekend, as the car is still in serious trouble. To find a solution, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell used different settings while training in Canada.

George Russell (7th): “This track is fun to drive, old school, hard and full of bumps. But our speed leaves much to be desired, as we have lost a lot not only to the two top teams, but also to riders like Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

On bumps, the sensations are still uncomfortable, because these cars have the stiffest suspension, but we have to try to deal with this. Obviously we can’t attack the curbs like we did before. We try to make the car softer through the settings, but the possibilities in this area are limited.

I understand that the new generation machines are still not fully understood, but we definitely need to make at least some improvements. To understand how to do this, Lewis and my cars were set up completely differently in the second practice session. We probably need to find an intermediate option that will allow us to get ahead of the teams in the middle of the pack in qualifying. I think there are possibilities. But if we fail, our job becomes more difficult.”

Lewis Hamilton (13th): “Overall, this Friday is similar to all the previous ones this year. During training we tried different approaches to the settings, on my car we experimented with the underside, but it turned out to be unsuccessful. It seems that whatever we do with W13, nothing works!

In the second training session, my and George’s cars were set up very differently – we just wanted to understand what worked and what didn’t. And in my case it was a real disaster – it seems that whatever we do, the car is getting worse. But the situation is what it is. We just have to keep working, although apparently we have to admit that we have such a machine this year.

The settings are so hard that it is necessary to drive past the curb and the car jumps into the air. And on this track you have to use curbs – in general we have big problems. We tried increasing the ground clearance, but there wasn’t much of a difference. This time the feeling of driving is unusual – this is not the track in Montreal that I know.

I hope we can work more tonight and make some adjustments to the settings, but in principle the car will remain as it is now. So I foresee difficulties. All the time you have to make great efforts to avoid contact with the fender.