Fourth in qualifying for the French Grand Prix, Hamilton was largely satisfied with this result. If the Mercedes are still far from Ferrari and Red Bull, the Briton does not admit defeat.
At Le Castellet,
“Best-of-the-rest”. The best of the rest of the board. Formerly far from this kind of considerations, reserved for a decade for Ferrari, McLaren or Alpine drivers, this qualification has been suitable for a few weeks for Sir Lewis Hamilton himself. “It’s my pole position, it’s that of the rest of the grid., philosophized the British driver, already showered when responding to the media after qualifying on Saturday afternoon. And for good reason, the Q3 podium must comply with three times more media obligations. And Hamilton is not P1, but P4.
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«Somehow we can’t do better, they’re out of our reach“Agreed the seven-time world champion, who will therefore start on the second row of the Grand Prix de France this Sunday (3 p.m.), his 300th in his career. They are the Ferraris and the Red Bulls, more supersonic than they thought. His last very honorable “qualifying” lap confirmed the trend: “You feel that you are doing a big trick and then you realize that you are relegated to more than a second», analyzes Hamilton, whose wide eyes reflect astonishment.
The surprise effect has however lived since the start of the season, where the two teams mentioned crush the competition like LH44 and Mercedes in the hybrid era. Except that behind, the German team missed its approach to the future. Some spoke of the bluff after failed winter tests, but Mercedes did not assimilate the new regulations well. Halfway (11 out of 22 races), Toto Wolff confirms the pain: “In Formula 1, the clock never lies and today it says that we are not fast. It’s like that, we screwed up mechanically, we screwed up aerodynamically, it’s never just one thing, it’s a combination.»
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“We have taken another step forward”
But the Silver Arrows remain a (very) solid third force on the board (3e constructors to 67 points from Ferrari). Thanks to the talent and consistency of its drivers, including George Russell, literally nicknamed Mr Consistency (Mister Regularity) for his 10 tops 5 in 11 races (one retirement). Sign of a stable far from stalled, in any case less and less. Smiling at Le Castellet, where he will have been celebrated rather than whistled, Hamilton seems to have been affected by the optimism of his new neighbor at Mercedes. “Everyone works so hard at the factory, we’ve taken another step forward here“, assures the person concerned with elements of language that have long been foreign to him.
Policy of small steps. And it’s progressing, as evidenced by a gap between his Mercedes and Leclerc’s Ferrari, not beyond the second but slightly below (9 tenths). What was not all the same the initial idea:Arriving this weekend, I hoped to find myself at 3 tenths. The next, I hope to get closer to 2 tenths and so on to be able to play for the win again…“, admits the interested party. It will wait:They fight in a different category, you understand that you can’t do much more. You can change some things but sometimes it changes absolutely nothing. Sometimes it’s hard to accept.”
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Calm and peaceful
However, the native of Stevenage begins to accept it more easily. Force of habit? The most positive sequence of recent races? On the podium of the last three rounds of the championship, each time third (Canada, Great Britain, Austria), number 44 has found the hair of the beast. A wounded beast, irritated but certainly appeased. Mostly professional. “It doesn’t surprise me, even more his professionalism in the analysis of data, sessions, it’s clear, lucid, transparent, calm. The harder it is, the calmer it is. It’s impressive, even for a seven-time world champion“Explains his boss Toto Wolff, interviewed at Le Castellet by AFP.
If, as it stands, it is almost impossible, apart from an incident, for Hamilton to play for the win this Sunday (“we are too slow in a straight line“), his progress and that of his car are notable. He beats his teammate again and is regular up front. It is still too early to bet on a season without any victory for Sir Lewis, which would be a first in his career. The developments expected after the winter break (at Spa-Francorchamps on August 28) augur a brighter tomorrow for the record holder with 103 victories. And the absence of a 104th would not be prohibitive, Toto Wolff assures him: “He loves what he does, talking about development, helping the team. I don’t see him leaving F1 soon.»