Lewis Hamilton expects there will be more clarity on whether the major car upgrades brought to the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix by Mercedes will work at the next race in Spain. The team changed the sidepod profile and front suspension on their W14 after a difficult start to the season, introducing them a week later than expected due to the cancelled race in Imola. While the Silver Arrows have yet to figure out if the car has improved in lap performance due to the slow-speed nature of the Monaco track, Hamilton believes that the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya will offer a better benchmark for them to measure their performance. "Barcelona is like the best test bench circuit for us, so I think it'd be really difficult here to really know. The car feels really stiff, it's lots of bumps, it's tricky," he told Sky Sports F1 . Throughout the weekend Mercedes appeared to face issues with car set-up, as George Russell and Hamilton struggled to match the lap times of Red Bull and Ferrari. Making the right call in the pit stops when the rain hit the circuit, plus a few driver errors from those in front, was what ultimately enabled them to finish inside the top five.
Hamilton confident about improvements
Hamilton said that he had noticed a specific area that had improved with the car, adding that he feels like the whole package will be "much, much better" when they reach the track in Spain. "I definitely noticed one particular part with the car which is better, but I don't know how that'd be next week. I'm sure the whole thing will be much, much better," he explained. Mercedes come away from the Monaco race weekend having closed the gap to Aston Martin in the Constructors' Championship, with them now just a point away on 119 versus 120 for their customer team.
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