"Five laps of quali mode not being done gives 25 laps of more performance in GP"

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20 August 2020 at 07:29
  • GPblog.com

Lewis Hamilton is not worried at all about the upcoming ban on qualifying mode. The FIA plans to make this official from the Belgian Grand Prix onwards, but at Mercedes they don't fear it. According to Hamilton it is going to make his team even more competitive on Sundays.

"I think it will actually help us in the race", Hamilton is quoted by Racefans.net. The 35 year old driver thinks that a ban on qualifying mode will allow Mercedes to run a higher engine setting on Sunday. The qualifying laps in Q3 are very bad for the lifespan of the power unit. For that reason the highest engine setting can only be used so rarely.

Hamilton tells a bit about performance Mercedes engine

“Five laps of quali mode not being done gives us 25 laps of more performance in the race. That is something that we believe will give us more performance", said Hamilton, who doesn't see only drawbacks now that the FIA is intervening in the hope of levelling the field in Formula 1. Toto Wolff spoke words of the same kind earlier.

The expectation is that Mercedes will have to surrender a few tenths during the Saturdays from the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. "I'm not sure that this will be the case, but it will hurt all the other teams well". Of course not only Mercedes will be limited, but the same goes for the other engine suppliers Ferrari, Honda and Renault.