“It seemed to work quite well in Bahrain, but didn’t in Barcelona, so
it’s something we haven’t quite caught on to just yet.
“But it’s nothing to do with me as a driver. It’s about what we do before
we get in the car. In the race there was no grip. I was just sliding around
on all fours, just tip-toeing around.
“It didn’t matter whether I went slow or fast, it didn’t do anything
different. It was very, very strange. One of the strangest feelings I’ve had
for a long time.
“We had a long discussion about it afterwards and we just have to
understand what went wrong and how we can improve it for the upcoming races.”
The next outing is under a fortnight’s time in Hamilton’s favourite circuit of
Monaco, but not even the potential thrill of winning in Monte Carlo could
raise Hamilton’s spirits.
“I’m not really thinking about Monaco at the moment,” added
Hamilton. “I have to try and digest the last race because falling from
second to 12th is a big drop.
“I have to think about how we can improve as a team, how we can correct
things, and I’m going to do do absolutely everything I can with the guys to
put it back together.
“I need to go back and see them and question all of the engineers we
have, put ideas into their heads and get ideas from them as to what we can
do to improve for the next time we go out.
“We’ve clearly got a great car, we’re clearly a fantastic team, and there
is nothing, I don’t believe, we can’t solve.”
Before heading to the Mercedes factory at Brackley, Hamilton will first take
in some Florida sunshine courtesy of one of the team’s sponsors.
“I’m looking forward to the trip,” said Hamilton. “It’s going
to be one of my first major appearances for them, so I’m excited about it as
I’ve not done many appearances this year. It’s nice to do one every now and
then.
“After that I’ll get back to the factory. I don’t know why it’s taking us
so long to really grab hold of this problem. It’s not rocket science.
Ferrari and Lotus have done it, and we just need to do it, and I’m sure we
will at some point.
“If we all pull together, which we have been doing all year, but now is
more important than ever, particularly after a race like the one we had.
“We need to take a step back, look at what happened objectively, and try
to figure it out.”
(Edited by Ben Bloom)