Lewis Hamilton is confident Mercedes will deliver an improvement at this week’s inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix and believes it will be an “amazing” achievement if they can beat Ferrari to second in the constructors’ championship.
Mercedes have endured two difficult campaigns and have not managed a single victory in 2023, with Red Bull winning 19 of 20 races to seal another dominant title triumph.
Things appeared to be looking up for the team when Hamilton finished second at the Mexico City Grand Prix in late October, but they delivered what team principal Toto Wolff described as an “inexcusable” performance at the Sao Paolo Grand Prix last time out.
Hamilton slipped to eighth in Brazil while team-mate George Russell retired due to overheating after both drivers struggled with the team’s W14 car, leading Wolff to say: “I can only feel for the two driving such a miserable thing.”
As Formula One returns to Las Vegas on a new-look street circuit this weekend, Hamilton is expecting a far more competitive showing.
“We 100 per cent know what went wrong there. Ultimately, we didn’t do a good job,” Hamilton told Sky Sports of Mercedes’ last outing on Wednesday.
“But we took a lot of learnings from it in terms of where we need to go and where we need to develop. Through failure, there is always a lot of things you learn.
“So coming here, hopefully we have a better approach, but we still don’t know how the car is going to be here.”
#ONTHISDAY in 2020. @LEWISHAMILTON claimed a stunning seventh @F1 Drivers’ title.
🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆
“That’s for all the kids out there who dream the impossible” 💪PIC.TWITTER.COM/ZLWZWOK9V1
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) NOVEMBER 15, 2023
Mercedes only have two races left to avoid their first winless campaign since 2011, two years before Hamilton and Wolff joined the team.
Though the seven-time world champion believes the W14’s shortcomings make a race win unlikely, he says holding off third-placed Ferrari – who are currently 20 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ standings – would be cause for celebration.
Quizzed on Mercedes’ wildly inconsistent car, Hamilton said: “We’ve had so much work done through the year already. I have to leave the guys to do what they do best.
“It’s still not a world championship-winning car and I don’t even think it’s probably a race-winning car. That’s what we’re going to have to work on for next year.
“But either way, we’re going to be fighting to try and stay ahead of Ferrari and the fact that we are competing for second in the constructors’ title is amazing given where we started. I’m really hopeful we can maintain that position.”
A night at Speed City. 🤩😍 Kicking off our #LASVEGASGP in style.
Track action + drone show = an evening like no other. ✨@MERCEDESAMG @IWC #AMGXIWC #SOAMG PIC.TWITTER.COM/G69Q0ZRQK9
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) NOVEMBER 15, 2023
While Hamilton could yet overhaul Sergio Perez for second place in the drivers’ standings, team-mate Russell is languishing in eighth place ahead of this weekend’s race.
However, the former Williams driver does not think recent tweaks to the car have favoured Hamilton over him, saying: “We have different driving styles but the fundamental limitations we both face are the same.
“We’re cautiously optimistic for next year. We’re not sat here thinking; ‘why are we slow?’ We know why we’re slow. We’ve got so many issues with this car and so many problems that we want to solve.
“We hope that if we do solve them, then we can make a big step forward.”
