Despite being happy with his race performance, Hamilton acknowledged that he is eagerly anticipating Mercedes' much-anticipated upgrade package.
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Toto Wolff, the team principal of Mercedes, praised Lewis Hamilton for his outstanding performance in the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, when he came from the middle of the grid to score a significant number of points. After suffering a Q2 exit at the Miami International Autodrome, Hamilton utilised a hard-medium tyre strategy to advance from 13th to sixth place, finishing the run with a late pass on Ferrari rival Charles Leclerc. “He’s had a mega performance, because when you start 13th with a car that’s really not easy [to drive], then had to plough through the field. At the end he had real pace, overtaking the Ferrari. Finishing sixth when you start 13th… It’s a very, very good job that he’s delivered today,” he said.
Despite being happy with his race performance, Hamilton acknowledged that he is eagerly anticipating Mercedes’ much-anticipated upgrade package to be unveiled at the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Wolff did issue a warning, however, that Mercedes needed to control our own expectations with the variety of new components that would be introduced at the halfway point of the 2023 season.
“I have never in my 15 years in F1 seen a ‘silver bullet’ being introduced, where suddenly you unlock half a second of performance, so I very much doubt that this is going to happen here,” the Austrian said. “What I’m looking forward [to] is that we take certain variables off the table, where we believe we could have introduced something that we don’t understand in the car, and go more to, let’s say, a stable platform.”
With a flawless performance in the 2023 Miami Grand Prix, Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin earned his fourth podium in five races, but the two-time champion was obviously itching for a victory. In a Saturday qualifying session that saw Charles Leclerc crash out, Max Verstappen qualify ninth, and Sergio Perez claim pole, Alonso impressively placed second on the grid. Alonso finished 26 seconds off the pace in P3, but seven seconds ahead of fourth-place finisher George Russell. Verstappen ultimately made a fantastic comeback to win the race ahead of Perez.
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“The car is amazing, and [it was] a little bit of a lonely race, today,” he said. “Nothing really to do in front of us with the Red Bulls and behind us. We did expect a little bit stronger opposition, but the Ferraris, they were a little bit worse than expected. It’s not easy, it’s never easy, but it was a lonely race.”
“I think at the beginning of the year a podium was amazing; now after four podiums we obviously want more, at least a second place,” Alonso added. “But the two Red Bulls they are always unbreakable, and always super-fast, but as I said, maybe Monaco, maybe Barcelona we have a possibility. We take the podium going into the triple, Imola, Monaco and Barcelona, which hopefully we can keep on going.”
