Lewis Hamilton has admitted that Mercedes’ straight-line speed at Monza is a major concern for his team ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. Despite Ferrari bringing an engine upgrade and impressing in first practice, Mercedes' top speed advantage gave Hamilton plenty to think about.
In FP2, George Russell topped the timesheets for Mercedes, beating Charles Leclerc by a narrow margin. Hamilton, meanwhile, could only manage fifth place, 0.457 seconds off the pace. Set-up changes made by Ferrari backfired, and Hamilton also suspected Mercedes had an edge in top speed.
“The straight-line speed, it's considerable to worry about,” said Hamilton. “Looking at the deltas, I was losing something like six tenths to George just on the straights. That's something we need to look into.” He also complained about the car's handling in FP2, making it difficult to extract a clean lap. “We made a couple of changes, but it shouldn't have been that bad. We might revert,” he added.
Despite the deficit, Hamilton gave his approval to the upgraded engine that Ferrari introduced at Monza. The power unit is believed to deliver an additional 15bhp, helping to halve the gap to Mercedes. “The engine is an improvement, and I'm really grateful for the guys back at the factory for working on it. But our deployment schedule is different to our competitors,” he explained.
Ferrari team boss Fred Vasseur also backed the engine upgrade, insisting the top speed gap is down to multiple factors, not just power. “It seems like they have less drag on the straights, so that's something we need to look at. Performance on the straights is about drag, weight, everything. We've made a step, but there's still a decent gap,” he said.
With a tight battle expected at their home race, Ferrari must find a solution before qualifying to challenge for pole position.
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