"It feels much more like a race car": Lewis Hamilton shares positive verdict for Mercedes ahead of the 2024 F1 Bahrain GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton was satisfied with the Mercedes W15's pace after the first two practice sessions of the 2024 F1 Bahrain GP.

He told F1TV that the first practice run was quite tricky for him, but the car felt great in the second session. However, he stated that Mercedes' race pace was not yet on par with Red Bull.

"It was very windy in FP1, and the track was very different to during the test. We didn’t know exactly where we would stack up against everyone else, but we had a positive FP2 session. The car was feeling good, but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We know there is more to extract, and our long run pace isn’t in the fight with the Red Bulls," Lewis said.

Lewis Hamilton was happy with Mercedes' 2024 F1 car, saying that it finally felt like he was driving a race car.

"Overall though, I’m feeling much happier with the car than last year. We’ve made some good improvements and it feels much more like a race car. It’s a really good platform for us to build from. We just need to keep our heads down and keep chasing," he added.

Lewis Hamilton was ninth in the first practice session of the 2024 F1 Bahrain GP but topped the timing sheets in the second practice.

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Lewis Hamilton recalls when Mercedes shot down his car concept suggestions

Lewis Hamilton once recalled how Mercedes did not listen to his suggestions when they were developing their 2022 F1 car. In Netflix's F1 Drive to Survive Season 6, Hamilton stated how he complained about the car and urged the team to make changes.

According to him, Mercedes said they knew what they were doing and that Hamilton was wrong.

“I remember complaining to the team and being like, look, we have to make these changes, otherwise this is the trajectory we’re going to go on and this is where we’re going to end up. Please, please do something about it," Lewis said.

“I remember they said, like, we know what we’re doing, you’re wrong. And that was definitely an interesting moment. I was like, okay, I’ll step back, don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. Then when we got into the season, then we spoke again [they said] ‘oh, maybe you were right,” he added.

Mercedes struggled quite a lot in 2022 and 2023. They were unable to be on the front foot after the FIA changed the technical regulations in 2022. They took the wrong development path and realized it in the middle of 2023. Ever since then, Mercedes have been gradually changing their car concept and closing the gap with Red Bull.