“The car was always dreadful in the rain”: Lewis Hamilton fans react to being 1.5 seconds off Max Verstappen during FP3

F1 fans were quite surprised to see the lack of performance from Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton during the FP3 session at the 2023 British Grand Prix on Saturday (July 8).

In the mixed conditions, the Mercedes driver could only manage to get the sixth-fastest time in the dry conditions while he was nowhere as competitive in the wet. The difference to double world champion and Red Bull driver Max Verstappen did not catch just Hamilton by surprise as his fans were equally shocked.

Lewis Hamilton asked his race engineer about the gap in the rain, to which Peter 'Bono' Bonnington replied:

“It looks like four-tenths to Verstappen… Actually it’s 1.5s, just scanning through them all…”

The Brit's fans took to social media to give their reactions on the lack of pace, with one fan claiming that the W14 is dreadful in wet conditions, writing:

"The car was always dreadful in the rain."

Here are some more reactions:

Lewis Hamilton analyzes his Free Practice performance from Friday in Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton was 12th and 15th in the two practice sessions at Silverstone and over one second off the pace compared to pace-setter Max Verstappen.

Speaking with Sky Sports, the Briton said:

"Car-wise, we are battling the same thing the majority of the time. It's a tough car to drive. No matter what we do to set it up, it continues to be a tough car to drive. On a single lap, I didn't feel any improvement between tires, which shows something is wrong. We are missing something. The long run didn't seem to be too bad, so that's a positive at least."

While his long-run pace did cause some concern for Carlos Sainz, Lewis Hamilton had a different perspective about it and added:

"It didn't feel particularly great, but it must have felt worse for others because they potentially weren't as quick, or had more degradation. The last part of my run was starting to be more consistent for whatever reason."

"It could be wind or balance or me getting used to the balance. This track is all about trying to weigh these scales the whole way around and making compromises here and there."

Hamilton continued:

"There's such a fine edge on the balance and such a big balance window. It's back and forth. It's like one end to the other end of the spectrum from braking to turning to mid to exit of every corner, so it's a good battle."

It will be interesting to see where Lewis Hamilton finishes at the end of the qualifying session.