Lewis Hamilton says he still has lap time to fine around parts of Mugello after ending the first day of practice behind his team mate.
Hamilton was full of praise for the Tuscan circuit, which he said is one of the most physically demanding venues Formula 1 has visited.“I like it, it’s fast,” said the six-times world champion. “It’s definitely a real challenge, just I’m not that great at it just yet, but I’m working on it.”
The Mercedes driver said he is losing time to team mate Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen at the beginning of the lap.
“I’m trying to push it to the limit,” he said. “I think there are sections like the last sector, I’ve got that sorted and pretty happy with that.
“The first and second sector are a little bit weak for me, but particularly the first sector. There’s plenty to come in that section. Max and Valtteri are very quick through there so I’ll do a lot of studying tonight and hopefully I’ll rectify that tomorrow.”
The double right-hander of Arrabbiata one and two, turns eight and nine, particularly impressed Hamilton.
“It almost feels like Turkey [Istanbul Park], the triple left-hander you have there,” he said. “It’s incredibly fast.
“Through six, seven eight and nine it’s intense. I have to say it’s amazing to experience it. It’s going to be difficult to look after the tyres through those sections but everyone’s got the same problem.”
“There is no time for play here,” he added. “It’s a very, very serious track. It’s all medium and high [speed], you don’t go lower than fourth gear.
“It is so quick and there’s not a lot of run-off area. Particularly if you look through eight and nine, I was looking on the in-lap there, the speeds that we’re going, I was just praying that these tyres hold together through the very quick corner.”
Hamilton described Mugello as “one of the most physically demanding circuits we’ve been at for a while” over a long run.
“Particularly with those double right-handers, most of the time we’re flat out through those sections, and it’s just holding your neck the whole time. I love that.”
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Broke84 (@broke84)
11th September 2020, 16:23
If he said “I’m the best, I’m gonna boss this” then people will say arrogant.
But because he said what he did and admitted he could do better then people will still find fault and say his car will sort it or that Bottas will fall short. The reality is that Hamilton always strives for perfection. Maybe a lot of his skill is unappreciated now due to the dominance but I like how he wants to digest everything that Verstappen and Bottas are doing and improve. He has self belief but says honestly how he can do better.. Thats why he is so successful
BasCB (@bascb)
11th September 2020, 16:33
Well, based on recent form, I still expect Hamilton to gradually improve and then nail a qualifying lap in Q3 to be on pole once again @broke84, but I agree with you that it is nice to just read about Hamilton admitting his closest competitors are a step ahead of him on this track at the moment.
Maybe it has a bit in common with Austria. Also a track with some nice profile, up, down, fast passages and relatively short lap. So based on that, I think Bottas might have a chance to beat Hamilton too. Would be good for the championship if both Bottas and VErstappen do that off course.
Green Flag (@greenflag)
11th September 2020, 17:32
BasCB (@bascb)
11th September 2020, 17:53
I’ll count on you to wave them through ;-) @greenflag
William
11th September 2020, 17:30
Sounds like you and some pictures of hamilton need to get a room!
Becken Lima
11th September 2020, 19:17
Wow, amazing that a point of view and a appreciation from a Hamilton fan, could estimulate this kind of offensive comment. Nice job, mate!
William
12th September 2020, 8:45
Thanks!
HAL
11th September 2020, 18:11
What Lewis is basically saying is that the track is great, challenging, more technical than most and he seems genuinely pumped up because he still need to improve and has a nice target to reach. How some fans here find negative / dateable / defensive topic to spawn is beyond my understanding ! This track is amazing, just look at the video… I’m almost ready to kiss that f.. virus to give us the opportunity to see modern F1 races on tracks such as Mugello, Imola etc…
trib4udi (@trib4udi)
11th September 2020, 18:32
Wouldn’t you expect the most talented drivers to be ‘on it’ immediately? It’s a new circuit for all to drive with a F1 car, right?
ian dearing
11th September 2020, 18:57
If they were all ‘on it’ immediately it wouldn’t be a challenging track would it.
Fantomius (@liko41)
12th September 2020, 10:40
Not “all of them”, just the more talented ones.
Is Hamilton among them?
Mike_F1*
12th September 2020, 6:49
There is no such thing as talent. Just hours of dedication and practice to become world class. It’s a difficult track and takes practice. Hence Max practicing the track in a GT car. Hence hours spent on the sim rigs. Interestingly Bottas has driven this track before. This is Lewis being honest.
James Cheesemonger MBE
12th September 2020, 16:01
Not really, I would expect any driver to continuously improve over a number of laps on the very first time they drove a circuit as they learn about it, a good driver I’d reckon would do so over the course of a good few hours, maybe a day and a nights rest for their brain to assimilate what they’ve learned.
Of course Verstappen showed up at Mugello a month ago and spent a day learning it by driving a non F1 car, not quite the same, but certainly enough to give him an advantage over many of the other drivers. Nothing wrong with that, I’m surprised more didn’t. But then maybe some just don’t need to, three practice sessions is probably enough time for a really good driver to learn it.
Andy Bunting (@wildbiker)
12th September 2020, 7:24
+1
Rodber
11th September 2020, 16:40
I read, “parcatice” in the heading, then it kinda disappeared.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
11th September 2020, 17:34
Parcatice makes prefect.
I’m expecting Lewis’s deficit to disappear overnight, like the guys who commentated above – whatever his homework tonight is, I’m sure he’s figured out by now what he needs to study!
Green Flag (@greenflag)
11th September 2020, 22:22
Parcatice makes prefect. I’ll remember that.
franco
11th September 2020, 17:51
Nice to see that drivers actually sometimes have to practice their driving itself. Usually when I watch practice it looks like all they do is testing parts, trying setups and looking at data.
ian dearing
11th September 2020, 18:00
Depends who you are listening to during practice. If its Sky you are wasting your time. (Unless Rosberg is doing co-commentating.)
Green Flag (@greenflag)
11th September 2020, 18:00
Lewis has an extra qualifying mode unavailable to Bottas. It’s called Hammer Time.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
11th September 2020, 18:17
I hope his homework doesn’t include looking at Bottas’ telemetry. Didn’t think he was a fan of copying team mates 😋
apollo16RS (@apollo16rs)
11th September 2020, 18:25
Hamilton doesn’t “strive for perfection,” he “strives for attention.” He is so incredibly fake, he might as well be made out of wax. He is so unbelievably full of himself, his head so far in the clouds, his superior/inferior complex is so transparent, those who can’t see it are simply actively choosing not to.
Easy for a guy making his money, driving the best car, with the opportunities provided him to make nauseatingly fake “humble” comments while also singing one of the loudest songs of hypocrisy ever recorded in the history of ever.
Steve (@scbriml)
11th September 2020, 18:33
Thanks for the laugh!
ian dearing
11th September 2020, 19:02
So tell us what it is about Hamilton that makes you feel so inadequate.
John
11th September 2020, 19:05
Have to agree, I try to like the kid but he just keeps coming up with nonsense after nonsense time and again.
All his posturing wouldn’t be this way if Merc had real competition and all there was to concentrate on was quality racing!
Jamey
11th September 2020, 21:15
I find him hard to like also. He’s a great driver but it’s hard to say how great compared to others who weren’t as lucky to have such a dominating car.
Yes he beat VET but the latter made too many mistakes and literally threw one WDC away. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say VET’s 4 WDC’s were more due to the car than his talent as ALO stated in the past.
Beating Rosberg is no easy feat but the latter beat him which doesn’t help his legacy. Hamilton did have one more DNF than ROS but it shouldn’t have been close in the first place.
The fact he refuses to acknowledge ROS to this day says a lot about his ego. He certainly isn’t as great as he acts IMO.
A reasonable man
12th September 2020, 1:54
The really seems to be something about mr Hamilton that roles some types of folk. If he’s humble he’s being fake if he’s confident he’s being arrogant They’ll say. The guy just can’t win….. oh, hang on, he can win; he just keeps on just winning and winning, another few races and he’ll surpass Schumacher, and sometime next year is likely to pass 100 wins. You just know the losers who attack him will hate that, crying into their Ferrari pillow on their single bed in their mum’s spare room, which is just another reason I enjoy it when he wins!
trib4udi (@trib4udi)
11th September 2020, 18:30
it’s a new circuit for all. (let’s not count simulator work, or a filming day, or driving there with a road car).
This makes for an interesting comparison.
The most talented drivers would be ‘on it’ immediately. The fact that Hamilton isn’t, is not a disaster. But it is remarkable that he trails Bottas.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
11th September 2020, 18:53
@trib4udi I don’t think being “on it” immediately is really that important. It does make it easier to work through the weekend because you can start to concentrate on set-up or racepace quicker, but given Hamilton’s record, he was on it the first time they got to Abu Dhabi or COTA… maybe it’s just a matter of liking a track more than another.
It’s hard to know with drivers that have been so dominant for so long. Like the Hamiltons, the Schumachers, the Vettels… because they are always ahead of the pack. But I remember Webber being particularly good at certian tracks and very average at others, like Abu Dhabi, he really didn’t like that… but he loved Silverstone. Or Kimi with Spa, generally…
Becken Lima
11th September 2020, 19:42
Good point. Lewis is really good at breaking, so this fluid track could not being playing in his strenghts as a driver.
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
11th September 2020, 19:51
@fer-no65 Yeah I think on paper this isn’t a track that plays to Hamilton’s strengths. Lewis is known for making up time in heavy breaking zones, and also I believe in slow speed corners, while this track has none of these. I remember doing a rough comparison between Rosberg and Hamilton’s qualifying laps and the trend was that the higher speed circuits favoured Rosberg more. It’s hard to see the strengths clearly because Lewis is strong everywhere, but I think those trends still mostly hold true, so this track should be as good an opportunity as most for Bottas to get one over on him.
Iskandar Mazlan
12th September 2020, 1:16
Despite being undisputed King Of Quali, Lewis has his bad tracks too like Austria, Russia, Mexico, Brazil. I notice Lewis is superior on tracks with slow/medium corners. Lewis is known for “late braking” and “sharp narrow turn” in corners. Sharp narrow turns like MSc and Max too. Lewis holds the track record (Q3 quali) at street circuits Monaco & Singapore but not Baku. Maybe Baku long straights cancels out gain on slow corners.
David BR (@david-br)
12th September 2020, 1:20
@trib4udi @fer-no65 @keithedin @beckenlima Peter Windsor timed the first flying lap by each driver and the first four fastest were Hamilton, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Leclerc. Hamilton was a second quicker than anyone else. So in terms of ‘out of the box’, being ‘on it’ immediately, Hamilton actually won easily. :o)
What does it mean? Who knows. But I think it means natural pace, unforced, the kind of pace that translates well into race pace. You can learn to get faster on a single lap, but the question is how much stress your putting on the tyres etc. to achieve that lap and how replicable it becomes under race conditions.
In terms of corners, it’s true one of Hamilton’s strongest points is braking. But also carrying momentum fluidly through sequences of corners, especially in race conditions, and variable conditions. Verstappen is also exceptional on this point. So there’ll still probably be one or two places where he can make a difference over Bottas if he’s on form this weekend.
Iskandar Mazlan
12th September 2020, 1:31
Agree. If you notice after Austria, Lewis seldom top P1-P3. Maybe to avoid Bottas from copy his quali protocol. Always says .. I made some last minute changes last nite or in Q3. He nail Sector 3 in P2. He can tidy up Sector 1 & 2 in other runs, keep data secret on how to tackle turn 1-9. Will put them together starting Q2 2nd run. Carry momentum fluidly reminds me of magical lap Singapore 2018.
Iskandar Mazlan
12th September 2020, 1:37
Back then McLaren test driver was shock to see Lewis 1st run on simulator. He arrived late just ask 1st turn turns left or right then he bang fastest lap within few laps. Along this line.
David BR (@david-br)
12th September 2020, 3:06
@Iskandar Mazlan The amazing thing about that Singapore lap was the fluidity of his acceleration, along with the accuracy and flow of the steering inputs, almost zero correction throughout. It’s quite shocking to think that his idol, Senna, actually used the exact opposite technique, dabbing the accelerator constantly to maintain revs. Still amazing control needed, though not sure it would work in today’s cars.
Madjaya
12th September 2020, 3:22
This is another strength on Hamilton CV, when come to new venue circuits he won the most than the others, on Maca days and Merc days. To name the cirucuits: COTA, Yas Marina, Sochi,
Nomad
11th September 2020, 19:20
No, the most talented drivers are the ones who know what they need to do to cross the finish line first on Sunday. The most talented marathon runners aren’t the ones who are leading after 10K, 20K or even 30K. They’re the ones who are leading after 42.195K and not a metre before.
David Bondo
11th September 2020, 20:48
Verstappen showed his incredible talent to be just behind Hamilton in a significantly slower car.
Green Flag (@greenflag)
11th September 2020, 21:55
It’s only practice, David Dumbo. In qualifying he’ll put in it on pole.
Trixi
11th September 2020, 22:38
Just like that overhead sign last week that predicted his win….
Kamau Young
11th September 2020, 23:59
Verstappen was also at the track in a gt car a couple of weeks ago. They are not allowed to test in F1 cars but some of them are already familiar with the track.
Hamilton put himself behind drivers who do that cause he dislikes practice and sim work
Iskandar Mazlan
12th September 2020, 1:40
Max was just right behind Lewis during Singapore magical lap .. in inferior car. Of course in Brazil 2016, Max overtook evryone in the wet except Lewis.
David Bondo
12th September 2020, 8:27
2016 the Merc won 19 of 21 races. Easily 20/21 if Hamilton didn’t take Rosberg out in Spain. One of the most dominant cars ever.
Also it was Max’s first season at RBR and wasn’t even his first full season at RBR.
Thanks for showing how incredible Max is.
Fantomius (@liko41)
12th September 2020, 10:46
David Dumbo definitely suits you well, lol!
poop troop
12th September 2020, 2:03
Let’s not forget that Max spent a day going round and round Mugello To learn the track, and twice that time doing the same in Portugal. It’ll be particularly disappointing if he doesn’t do well after get that jump on most of the drivers
John
11th September 2020, 20:59
Have the feeling that Ham gets scared with new unknown tracks, he doesn’t have that racer spirit of a goat like Senna or Schumacher to be on it from the first lap. Oh well, guess his rocketship will gift him another championship next to puppet number two.
slowmo (@slowmo)
11th September 2020, 21:28
Pretty sure Schumacher got schooled by Massa at new tracks when they were together.
Iskandar Mazlan
12th September 2020, 1:21
MSc had unlimited testing on this Ferrari track. Yet the record belongs to Barrichello.
Reginald Q Buckethead III
12th September 2020, 2:08
If by “racer spirit” you mean he doesn’t feel the need to deliberately crash into his opponents in a championship decider race in order to win a WDC then, no he doesn’t have it..
Madjaya
12th September 2020, 3:03
Very true. In term come new venue MS is outperformed by Massa. Lewis is the best at this term
David BR (@david-br)
12th September 2020, 4:25
@ John, see above. In terms of first flying laps in P1, Hamilton was at least a second ahead of everyone else. If you want to make a narrative of ‘being on it from the first lap,’ that completely nullifies your point.
David Bondo
12th September 2020, 8:29
When Schumacher came back from his broken leg at Malaysia 1999 (first race at track), he stuck it on pole with a one second margin in the dry.
Incredible stuff.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
11th September 2020, 22:39
The track is indeed amazing.
Flowing, elevation chsnges, and most importantly has gravel and grass.
It is gonna be crazy.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
12th September 2020, 1:34
Drop him from the team… NOW! :)
Zann (@zann)
12th September 2020, 9:06
The narrative used to be the ‘good at sports’ racial stereotype didn’t it, so that he supposedly did it on physical talent, while Vettel studied it intellectually visiting Pirelli and all that. But in fact Lewis studies a lot too. I think everyone knows this now, really, but one or two people have discovered they can always get attention with an anti-Lewis post, and they can have ‘burner’ duplicate accounts to do it with.
Q3 will tell the story anyway. And if Valtteri is still faster Lewis will graciously acknowledge it.