Lewis Hamilton: The result gives me and the team hope

Lewis Hamilton took the podium in Canada and smiled for the first time in a long time after finishing the race. At a press conference, the Mercedes driver said that the settings allowed him to see the car’s potential at the Montreal track.

Q: Lewis, this is your first time on the podium since the Bahrain Grand Prix. How happy are you with third place after a series of difficult stages for Mercedes?
Lewis Hamilton: I am very happy that I managed to participate in the race. At one point I even rode at the same pace as the leaders, but closer to the finish they were able to pull away. This result makes me and the team hopeful. We managed to get more out of the car – it has potential, but it needs the right settings to unlock it.

This year the biggest problem has to do with the optimization of settings. The working range of the machine is very narrow – much less than any other machine we’ve had in the past.

Yes, I haven’t climbed the podium in a long time. In Canada 15 years ago, I won the race for the first time, so I’m really happy to feel the energy of the fans again and remember that podium. I am very happy.

Q: Lewis, you mentioned the settings, but on Friday when you were driving the car on a dry track last time, you complained about the lack of speed. What has the team done to add to the race?
Lewis HamiltonA: I wouldn’t say I complained. We just tried two different ways to work with the car, and the way I did it was terrible. The team compared data collected on Friday and made drastic changes to the settings, making the car much better handling in the race. Even better than we expected which is great.

If you manage to cover the distance of the race, you will learn a lot about the car, understand what you like and what not, collect a lot of information and so on. So we learned a lot before the race. It’s very good that we have high reliability – thank you to everyone who has done an excellent job on our bases for this.

We have to keep working. I know in which areas we are losing to the leaders, but we intend to fix this and focus on the attack.

Q: The next race will be at Silverstone. Are you sure you can attack the UK track?
Lewis Hamilton: I think we’re better in medium and fast corners than in slow ones, so… On the other hand, the wobble hasn’t gone away, so I don’t know what’s going to happen in Copse and other areas like that. Should be interesting.

I’m also happy to be back in the UK – the weather is great there now and I hope it stays that way.

Q: Lewis, you said the car has gotten better. What did you mean? Decreased swing? Has the car gotten faster? What exactly?
Lewis Hamilton: On Friday the car had neutral balance, which is very cool, but the rear wheels didn’t hold the track. And as soon as I turned a degree, the rear wheels tended to spin. I was constantly dealing with it – it was hard to stay away from the walls. That’s why I didn’t finish the long series of laps, because the car was out of control with this setup. It was just an experiment to understand what works and what doesn’t.

The team adjusted the settings and in the race the car was much, much better in balance. She had the necessary slight understeer, the car held the track better during acceleration. The difference is like between day and night, but the buildup has not completely disappeared.

Q: Wasn’t the build-up as strong as in Baku?
Lewis Hamilton: This weekend the situation is much better than in Baku thanks to the suspension we have chosen.

Q: How is your back after the finish?
Lewis Hamilton: As I said, the build-up was not as strong as in the last race. Words cannot express how difficult it was in Baku. This weekend the build-up was maintained, but not as strong.

In the last race the g-forces were 10G or so. In Canada, the congestion was 2G or 3G, which is acceptable. But still, I believe that both the sport and our team need to keep working to change the situation for the better.