Lewis Hamilton suspects that his old team Mercedes is using a kind of ‘party mode’ during qualifying. The current Ferrari driver noticed that the Silver Arrows made a very large leap forward in Q2 of the sprint qualifying in China. ‘In qualifying they have a different mode they can switch to’, Hamilton explains. ‘Like the ‘party mode’, the party mode, of the past.’
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Twice Lewis Hamilton finished in third place behind Mercedes on Saturday in Shanghai. During the sprint race, the seven-time world champion was in the lead for a while, but eventually both winner George Russell and teammate Charles Leclerc overtook him. In qualifying, it was Andrea Kimi Antonelli who finished ahead of Hamilton as the youngest polesitter ever. The two were split by Russell.
Hamilton thinks he knows how his former employer has such an advantage in terms of pace. “I was at Mercedes for a long time, so I know how it works there”, the driver says during the press conference after the sprint race in China. “In qualifying they have a different mode they can switch to. Like the ‘party mode’, the party mode, of the past. And as soon as they get into Q2, they turn it on, and we don’t have that. So whatever that may be.”
According to Hamilton, Mercedes’ advantage is temporary. “In the race they don’t have that mode, of course. So they clearly still have an advantage overall, and we have to figure out what that is. But there is more to be gained there, especially in Q2. You see in Q1 that we are not that far off. And then suddenly it’s like there’s a huge step. A tenth behind in Q1, I believe. And then suddenly seven tenths… another half second. That’s a big jump forward.” Hamilton was ultimately more than six tenths slower than sprint polesitter Russell.
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During qualifying for the main race, the difference between the Briton and polesitter Kimi Antonelli was more than three tenths. The gap to Mercedes was thus smaller than what the Briton had previously predicted. “Maybe they hadn’t turned on the mode”, Hamilton jokes during the press conference after qualifying. “I don’t know, but we take it with a grain of salt”.
‘People sometimes just make things up’
Lando Norris, who starts the Chinese GP from the third row of the grid, was also asked about Mercedes’ ‘party mode’. Does McLaren, as a customer team of the Silver Arrows, happen to have this too? “No, we don’t have that”, the reigning world champion is clear after qualifying. The driver also doesn’t think Mercedes has the mode. “Sometimes people just make things up.”
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Read everything about the Chinese GP here
