Q&A with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton 11 Jun 2010
McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton finished third on Friday morning’s practice timesheets. But the second session was an entirely different story, with a frustrated Hamilton finishing in seventh. The British driver reviews his progress in Montreal…
Q: There was quite a big difference between the morning practice session and the afternoon one for you…
Lewis Hamilton: I am not happy at all about how the afternoon session went. I think today, in general, the track has been very difficult to drive and to get heat into the tyres. It is just so slippery. The car is massively oversteering and you have to keep correcting all the time. It’s such a huge difference from when we were last here. The previous time we got great grip, and the track got better and better. We are struggling a bit.
Q: Theoretically you should be flying on the long straights, so where do you think you are losing out?
LH: I have the feeling it’s everywhere. We are not pulling away down on the straights, and we have a lot of bottoming. There are areas that we can improve, we just have to do a constructive debrief now and figure out where we want to go with the car. We have tried a few things, but the car was just behaving badly, especially on the option tyres. We had so much graining that I had to come in. But most of the teams had a similar experience, except maybe the Red Bulls. So I believe that you will not see a very long first stint on the option tyres during the race.
Q: McLaren have always said that Montreal is one of the team’s favourite races. Is it still the case after today?
LH: If you look at the times, perhaps not. But in qualifying anything can happen. The weather can change or we might find some set-up changes tonight that will work in our favour. This afternoon it got worst, so we might go back on some of the changes.
Q: So do you think the race could see drivers following a two-stop strategy?
LH: This really depends on how long the prime tyre lasts. I would guess that people would stop very early or even start on the prime tyre. So a two stop race could make sense, as you would be definitely quicker.
