Lewis Hamilton has compared his experience during FP1 for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix to the difficulty he and Mercedes endured in Baku at the start of the current F1 regulations cycle.
Lewis Hamilton has compared driving the recently re-surfaced Interlagos track to the infamous 2022 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
During the first season of F1’s contemporary ground-effect era, a number of teams suffered with bouncing and porpoising, where their cars would hit the track surface hard, disrupting the air flow that passes beneath the floor, sucking the car to the ground.
It was particularly violent down Baku’s long straight, with some F1 teams pushing for changes in the regulations to protect the health of their drivers.
Mercedes was one of those teams, and a particularly heated exchange between Toto Wolff and Christian Horner was captured by Netflix for Drive to Survive during a meeting on the matter.
In the sole practice hour for the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with bouncing generally eradicated through development in F1 over the past three years, Hamilton was heard complaining to Mercedes of being in pain during the session.
The 39-year-old was asked about the conditions of the circuit after sprint qualifying, which prompted his to draw the damning comparison, whilst describing the re-surfacing job negatively.
“The ride is pretty bad on the track, I think for everyone,” the seven-time F1 drivers’ champion told F1TV. “The track has been resurfaced, and they’ve not done a particularly great job, so It’s bumpy for everyone.
“FP1 was like Baku 2022 for us. Down the straight [it] was hitting so hard, so we did lift the car. It was a little bit better, in terms of [it] wasn’t hitting the deck so badly [during qualifying], so I wasn’t in pain or anything like that.
“But through corners, the thing is hopping through the corners, so the thing is very hard to drive.”
Those comments came after what was a disastrous session for Hamilton, having failed to reach Q3 with his final push lap in the middle section of sprint qualifying.
The British driver will line up P11, three positions outside the points-paying places for the sprint.
George Russell qualified in sixth and has generally had the better of his team-mate over a single lap in 2024.
“Pretty bad,” Hamilton said when asked for his perspective of his session, which yielded a second early elimination across the Americas F1 triple-header.
“Same as every qualifying session for me. Not that I’m happy about it, but I just don’t have any confidence in the car, so a big struggle for me.”
