"Not good at all" - A dejected Lewis Hamilton looks back at first day of running in the 2023 F1 Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton was quite disappointed after the first two practice sessions at the 2023 F1 Hungarian GP.

The seven-time world champion was simply unable to connect with the Mercedes W14, and the results showed that. In the first practice session, Hamilton was dead last, while in the second, he finished 16th.

After both sessions, he spoke about the practice sessions and how the car felt like it was at its worst. However, he was hopeful that the team could work on the setup and improve.

Lewis Hamilton mentioned how they improved back in 2022 with a few setup changes and hopes to replicate it this year as well. He said (via F1.com):

“It was not good at all. [It] was feeling like the car at its worst today. But we will work on the set up tonight and hopefully tomorrow. Last year it felt terrible at the beginning, and we turned it around with some set up changes. So, we will work on that tonight, and hopefully it will feel better.”

Practice sessions do not necessarily accurately determine the pace each driver or team has. However, they loosely show where they stand in the pecking order. Analyzing both practice sessions, it looks like Mercedes is definitely struggling at the Hungaroring.

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Lewis Hamilton not too happy with new race weekend format and tire allocations at the Hungarian GP

Lewis Hamilton recently spoke against the new tire allocation format at the 2023 F1 Hungarian GP.

The FIA has allocated 11 sets of tires to each driver, two sets less than what they usually get. This in turn limits teams' and drivers' ability to use different tires during practice sessions to collect data.

Speaking about this to the media, the seven-time world champion said (via Autosport):

"I only had [one set of] tires for the session. So, not really a great format change they made for this weekend. It just means we get less running, so not ideal. There's a lot of wet tires that I think they throw away after the weekend, like a lot. Maybe they should look at something like that rather than taking time on track away from the fans," said Hamilton.

Apart from Lewis Hamilton, other drivers like Max Verstappen and Kevin Magnussen have also chimed in against the new tire allocation system.

The system, which was initially planned to be introduced at the Emilia-Romagna GP,s will also be used at the Italian GP in Monza.