Lewis Hamilton details where Mercedes can improve after chatting with Verstappen

Lewis Hamilton has urged Mercedes to work on improving the rear end of their W14 challenger following his third-placed finish at the Canadian Grand Prix. The 38-year-old was no match for race-winner Max Verstappen, who made it four straight victories by taking the chequered flag ahead of Fernando Alonso at the end of the 70-lap contest.

Hamilton managed to pass Alonso on the very first lap of the race but was unable to keep the Spaniard at bay in spite of his best efforts, with Mercedes lacking in comparison to Aston Martin for a large part of the weekend in Canada. The Silver Arrows also remained comfortably adrift of pace-setters Red Bull despite making no shortage of progress in their development over the last few weeks.

The result prompted Hamilton to insist that Mercedes should prioritise improving their rear end in order to keep chipping away at their Constructors’ Championship rivals in the near future. He told Sky Sports F1: “We just need to work on the performance of the car, particularly at the rear. That’s the biggest weakness.

“Particularly in low-speed [corners] I couldn’t keep up with those guys. We are on the right track. We have just got to add a lot more performance in the low speed. I’m forever grateful for everyone back in the factory. We have just got to keep churning away and I will try to keep pulling out these results. We have to beat the Astons, that’s for sure.”

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It came after Hamilton was caught on camera admitting to Verstappen that Mercedes were lacking in slow corners during a brief exchange in the cooldown room in the immediate aftermath of Sunday’s race. The Brit also hailed the construction of Red Bull’s rear end, which has helped the Austrian team to operate in a league of their own at the front since the beginning of the season.

“We suck in the low-speed corners,” Hamilton told Verstappen. “That’s where you’re just destroying me, out of the low-speed – actually, pretty much all the corners. Your rear end is insane.” He then switched his focus to Alonso, saying: “Yours [Aston Martin] is pretty awesome too.”

It remains to be seen whether Mercedes will be able to grant Hamilton’s wishes by improving the design of their rear end over the coming weeks, with the seven-time Drivers’ Championship winner also eager to see the Silver Arrows establish themselves as a quicker team than Ferrari despite finishing ahead of both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in Montreal.

“Just to be consistent and be fighting for a podium relatively up there consistently is fantastic for us,” he added. “Ultimately it was a difficult weekend for some people. If the Ferraris qualified where they should have, they would have been a bit quicker than us and they would have been difficult to overtake.”

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