"You could lose weeks of development" - Lewis Hamilton delves deeper into the challenges of developing cars within the current regulations

Lewis Hamilton believes the development of the new generation cars is a long-drawn and meticulous process. Speaking to media, including Sportskeeda, he explained that developing the underfloor of the car came with its own share of risks and a lengthy growth curve.

When asked why ironing out problems on the new generation cars was a lengthy process, the 38-year-old remarked that mapping the airflow could be done in the wind tunnel but it had its limitations. He felt that decisions to choose a particular path of development have to be taken wisely and that they compromise time and performance when they go wrong.

“It’s just, I mean the thing we can’t see is the flow of the airflow throughout the car and that’s just limited," he said. "When you look at the wind tunnel there is a map, certain map of the car, there’s simulations with the new rules that we have, all the new tools that you have to create to understand the flow structures underneath the car and the whole season it will blow your mind if you see what’s happening underneath the car, which is a lot different to the previous generations of cars."

"Working through that just takes time and also you have very limited results with it as well. So you have to be careful which to decision to make, you might go full steam ahead in this direction, you could lose weeks of development, could be tenths of performance. So you have to very methodical how you go through that process. Yeah I wish it was faster, which its not," Lewis Hamilton added.

In the older generation of F1 cars, a lot of the downforce was generated by the ‘coke bottle’ airflow around the car. In the current generation, it is the underfloor that is the most powerful vortex of downforce generation.

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Lewis Hamilton concerned about more teams breaching the budget cap

Lewis Hamilton feels that Red Bull not being penalized appropriately after the 2021 season cost cap breach makes the offense a non-risk factor for teams. The seven-time world champion stated that more teams will be guilty if there is no harsh punishment for it.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1 ahead of the 2023 Hungarian GP, the Briton said:

“It's definitely a concern. I mean, there wasn't really a big punishment last time, so there's no real... There will be people that will probably go for it again and know they're just going to get a slap on the wrist.”

Later in the day, he explained the same to Sportskeeda and the print media. With reports about more teams breaching the cost cap in the 2022 season, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has also called for harsher punishments in the future. A major sporting penalty includes the deduction of championship points or disqualification depending on the circumstances.

Both Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton were extremely vocal about Red Bull’s breach last year and lobbied for a stricter penalty. Most felt that the wind tunnel time penalty slapped on Red Bull as a minor sporting penalty was mild.