Hamilton sure new chassis helped his performance

2013 United States Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton said he was sure his change of chassis prior to the United States Grand Prix solved the problems he had been having previously.

Hamilton’s chassis was changed for this weekend after the team found damage on his car following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

“The car was night and day different to what it was in Abu Dhabi,” Hamilton told reporters after the race, “so I’m pretty sure the new tub helped.”

Hamilton declared he was “happy for the guys and just happy to have gone forward” after finishing fourth in the United States Grand Prix.

“I’m always talking about either staying where I am or going forwards and so I’m really happy with that. The team did a great job.”

Hamilton helped the team extend their lead over third-placed Ferrari in the constructors championship. “Really just so happy that I could contribute, get some points for the guys,” he said.

“They’ve been working so hard all year and I’ve had some really difficult races in the past half of the season so to finally have a half-decent qualifying and then be able to move forward and really utilise the tyres and have some life left in the tyres.”

He successfully resisted pressure from one of the Ferraris at the end of the race. “I was just really happy that in the end I could see Fernando [Alonso] was catching so I was just looking after he the tyres to wait until he starts to push.”

“And he started to push so I reacted a little bit. When he was going to try and wring out a tenth, I was going to bring two, when he tried to bring out three, I was going to bring four. So I was really happy I could do that today.”

Hamilton also moved up to third place in the drivers’ championship but said: “that doesn’t mean anything.”

“Plus, the guy that was in third [Kimi Raikkonen] wasn’t even racing so it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

2013 United States Grand Prix

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Image © Daimler/Hoch Zwei

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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20 comments on “Hamilton sure new chassis helped his performance”

    1. Wait. They had the old chassis, with quite bad damage. Significant enough to affect the handling. Now they have a new chassis, which handles better…

      No, I don’t think that’s the definition of a placebo.

      1. Now… that makes me think how much teams might make use of placebo effects.

    2. Placebo. Sure buddy. Much the same way the effects of a brain tumor are placebo. Damage is damage.

  1. Great drive Lewis finsihed ahead of your teammate in first season, also really strong weekend with the way tthe car has perormed. Onwards and upwards next year. Hope the Merc engine is the real deal(irumourd to be)and you win the title. Concentrte on your driving as a fan i hate it knowing you go to party in USA leave her out of your life drive like 2007-2008-2009 2010(first half) and 2012 you can wina deserved WC. I think 3 will now be what your talent deserves should be more but seeing as your nearly 29 hope you grasp it as 1xWC wit your stats of Poles and Wins is unfair. Also even though im the biggest Ham fan(i did not like Alo) i really want Alo to win anoher WC he deserves another atleast. But i think its longest run of a driver who as been WC to win another.

  2. Speaking of Raikkonen, pretty disappointing race from Heikki …

    1. Heikki did very well without a functioning KERS unit.

      1. Mr win or lose
        18th November 2013, 0:09

        A lack of KERS costs about 0.3 seconds per lap, so maybe 15-20 seconds over the course of an entire race. He finished 90 seconds behind Grosjean, so that leaves 70 seconds unexplained. So his performance was just disappointing, especially since he seemed quick in the free practice.

        1. Well his pace was not bad at first, compared to his new temporary team mate. But at some stage in the race he lost a lot of downforce, and had to change his front wing. That meant an extra pit stop which put him way out of a point scoring chance. In the interview with Heikki after the race, it seemed he didn’t know what happened, but I´m sure some explaination will come.

        2. He had that stop for a new nose, and he was suspiciously slow before that, so I’m guessing he had damage from the start.

          1. >so I’m guessing he had damage from the start.

            He did.

        3. a lack of kers may only cost 0.3 secs. on an open track but it costs a lot more if you are stuck behind a slow car that has a high top speed and working kers, use your brain.

      2. What is it with Lotus’ stand-in drivers and KERS failures?

  3. For a guy who has won a race and gotten several pole positions this year, Hamilton appeared to be pretty chuffed with his 4th place today. Well done to Vettel, but it sure would be nice to see Lewis or Nico (or anybody else!) get the win next week, but I fear that the RB / Vettel train will be hard to derail. Hopefully next year will be a bit more unpredictable.

    1. But Hamilton has to be realistic, the car wasn’t good enough for a podium today, so that was a pretty good drive for 4th, well ahead of his team-mate, and of Alonso to increase the gap to Ferrari a little. That’s just where Mercedes and Ferrari are at the moment: happy to take 4th and 5th place finishes such is Red Bull’s dominance and the pace of the Lotus of Grosjean.

    2. I think @deej92 is right, Hamilton is just being realistic. He wants to be fighting at the front but I think he realised it wasn’t realistic yesterday. He could be starting to remember that this was always going to be a development year for him and Mercedes. He wasn’t considering fighting for wins in preseason so he has to be happy to have 1 win, 5 poles and 5 podiums under his belt for the year.

      1. I agree, he should be happy with his season. Although he has had his struggles with a very different car to what he was used to and a new team, the record you pointed out is a good one, and he has beaten a very strong team-mate in his first season. If he can hold onto 3rd in the table, it will be his 3rd highest season finish.

  4. I would have loved for Lewis , Kimi , Webber championship fight in the end :( . Webber can still get third I think .

  5. I love how people say Lewis is hard on his tyres and doesn’t know how to manage them properly. If you actually notice Vettel driving, which is pretty difficult thing to do during a race day due to the cameras barely being on him, you’ll see how aggressively he drives. His engineer is constantly telling him to slow down and manage his tyres. This is him being in front all the time, one he gets under-pressure and has to overtake cars, we’ll see how easy it is for him to “conserve his tyres”.

  6. Can I see an F1 race where drivers aren’t forced to babysit the tires lap after lap? Can I see these guys straining to put in qualifying lap after qualifying lap to achieve victory? What has happened to this sport? It’s a joke, only I’m not laughing.

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