Lewis Hamilton gets huge F1 boost as unsung hero fixes 'woeful' Mercedes problem

14 July 2023 , 08:32

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Lewis Hamilton secured another strong result for Mercedes at Silverstone (Image: Getty Images)

A Mercedes chief heaped praise upon Mick Schumacher for saving the team's weekend at the British Grand Prix and helping Lewis Hamilton to the podium.

It was a good result for the Brits at Silverstone and the Mercedes drivers were part of that. Hamilton finished third behind compatriot Lando Norris, while George Russell also scored decent points in fifth.

While the Silver Arrows have greater ambitions, it was a very strong result relative to what they have generally been able to achieve this year. Only in Barcelona, where Hamilton and Russell shared the podium, have they scored more points over a single weekend.

But it didn't look as though it was going to go that way after practice on Friday. As technical director James Allison has since described, the pace of their two cars was "woeful".

In a video for the team's YouTube channel, he explained how reserve driver Schumacher had stepped up to help the team get on the right track. "Over the years, the overnight work that happens on a Friday night preparing for for Saturday has become more and more of an important factor in the rhythm of your race weekend, and this weekend was a particularly important one," he said.

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"We had seen on our Friday that we had a really good race car we had good consistent strong pace from both drivers and it looked like we were going to use our tyres well in the race stints on Sunday.

"So we knew that our setup was sort of there are thereabouts and we wouldn't want to change it too much, because you might sort of upset that delicate usage of the tyres that's key to getting a good race run.

Mercedes chief James Allison hailed the work Mick Schumacher put in to help the team at Silverstone (Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team)

"However we also knew on Friday that our one lap pace was woeful. We were way down the timesheet not with a bunch of excuses and on with it we were just slow so our challenge overnight was how to find pace in a car for qualifying without actually really sort of mucking about with the fundamental setup of the car, and that's what they set out to do on Friday night in our simulator."

Fortunately for Mercedes, the hard work and late night paid off. Allison added: "The engineers and Mick Schumacher are working late into the night till 2am trying to figure out how to get the best preparation of the car to be in good shape for a qualifying lap for that single push lap without changing the fundamental setup.

"So, [they were] only working on the things that you can change – the tyre pressures, the flap angles and so on. The things that you're allowed to change between qualifying and race, and therefore things that we can do without upsetting the fundamental setup of the car.

"Brilliant overnight work from that team, the result being that our single lap qualifying pace lifted right back up to being in the mix for a decent grid slot on the Saturday which is what set up our ability to have a good race on Sunday."

Daniel Moxon