Lewis Hamilton has been dissatisfied with his recent qualifying efforts in 2024. The Briton last took pole position at the Hungaroring in 2023, and he stated early this season that he will not outqualify colleague George Russell this year. At a circuit where he has recorded one of his most memorable qualifying laps of all time, the Briton discussed doing well on Saturdays in Singapore.
In 2018, Lewis Hamilton easily outqualified the entire grid in Singapore. Only Max Verstappen could get close to the British driver, who finished three tenths behind him on Sunday. “I anticipate that it will be similar to previous races. I’m not sure because things haven’t been going well for a while. “I’m just going to roll the dice and see what happens,” the Briton said of qualifying this season at the same circuit.
Returning to his lap six years ago, the Briton proceeded to describe where he is struggling now. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I don’t think it’s strictly about not being able to get to it. It’s simply the cars, and our current envelope is on a knife edge. You’d be in a braking zone, and the rear would be out of the window, then suddenly in the middle of the bend or before the apex, it’d be in the window, and then back out. I believe the air characteristics are changing every week, so from having a larger wing to a little beam wing, to having a bigger beam wing, to having front wings that are bending and rear wings that are flexing.”
Could locate that window in Spa.
He went on to discuss the difficulty of the current regulations, saying, “It’s such a competitive and extremely challenging moment, I think, for aerodynamicists and simulations to make sure they correlate every weekend. I believe it has been one of the most difficult moments, at least for my engineers. It’s been a very difficult time trying to get this car into the proper window.”
“When we were in Spa, we had no idea why it was so quick, and they probably still don’t. But we’re hoping that comes back to us at some time,” the Briton said, referring to the Belgian Grand Prix, where he outqualified his teammate and eventually won the race after Russell was disqualified.
