P1racenews AI automatic summary:
Lewis Hamilton rued some extensive set-up changes for FP2 at the Australian Grand Prix contributing to “one of the worst
Lewis Hamilton has struggled in the early races of his final season with Mercedes, finishing ninth in Saudi Arabia and seventh in Bahrain. Despite this, he believes the new Mercedes W15 car is not a “problematic” successor to its predecessor. Hamilton had a challenging time in practice at Albert Park as he grappled with the car’s setup and performance. The team reverted to a previous floor design and trialed aggressive tweaks on Hamilton’s car, which did not yield positive results. Hamilton acknowledged feeling less confident than ever in the car but found some positives to build on from the first practice session. On the other hand, his teammate George Russell had a more encouraging run, coming close to the best time in FP1 and showing progress in his understanding and handling of the W15 car. Despite facing challenges, Russell remains cautiously optimistic about the weekend’s prospects and looks forward to improvements from the team to fine-tune the car’s performance.
