21/09/2023
NEWS STORY
Lewis Hamilton admits that if Red Bull isn't on its previous "phenomenal" dominating form this weekend, it will raise questions over the impact of the recent technical directive.
The directive, which came into force last weekend in Singapore, having been announced late last month, followed FIA's technical director, Tim Goss's admission that he had noticed "a little bit too much freedom being applied to the design details of aerodynamic components".
With the introduction of TD018 coinciding with Red Bull's worst performance of the season, there was understandable speculation as to whether the two were linked, a claim immediately dismissed by Christian Horner.
"The car we have here for qualifying is essentially the identical car that we had two weeks ago in Monza and a week before that in Zandvoort," he insisted.
"Nothing's changed on the car," he continued. "We tried a new aero part on Friday and we thought OK we'll revert on that component, so it's a tried and tested set-up that we have. But it just hasn't responded on this circuit, on this asphalt."
"It's difficult," said Toto Wolff, when asked if he thought his rivals had been impacted by the directive. "We have one set of data now, Friday and Saturday in Singapore, tomorrow is a race and then we're going to move it a different track where that plays a role. So let's wait."
Speaking at Suzuka, Lewis Hamilton also clearly believes in the 'wait and see' approach, admitting that if Red Bull continues to struggle this weekend questions will be asked.
"I would think that if they're not thirty seconds ahead like they have done in the past then something's up," he told reporters.
"It was obviously a difficult weekend, the last one," he continued, "but that car should be phenomenal here.
"They've been phenomenal all year long," he added. "They've aced pretty much every circuit and it's going to be great to watch that car in general.
"Normally you would come here and it's beautiful to watch the laps that they do because the whole team as a whole and the drivers are doing an amazing job with the package they have. So it'll be interesting to see how the weekend goes.
"I hope that we're closer and I hope they're not as fast as that 30-second gap they've had in the past."
Despite scoring a podium in Singapore, Hamilton isn't expecting to have similar pace this weekend.
"Carlos was managing at the front and I think we were all relatively close, I would say, at the front," said the seven-time world champion. "But what a great race it was, just to have us all that close up front.
"However, this weekend I don't anticipate having the performance we had in the last race. We've worked very hard, we're continuing to try and push in the envelope that we have, so I'm hoping that we're not terribly far off this weekend."