Sir Lewis Hamilton was left lamenting a horrible day during the first two practice sessions at the Canadian Grand Prix as the bouncing issues showed no sign of relenting for Mercedes.
The Silver Arrows tried something different between Hamilton and team-mate George Russell regarding the floor in a big to understand why, having mostly solved their aerodynamic issues, they are still having such a tough time stopping the abrasion between the car and the track surface.
Hamilton ended FP1 and FP2 in eighth and 13th respectively as he wrestled his Mercedes round the track, and he revealed that any changes the team make only seem to be exacerbating the situation.
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“This car is so bad,” he commented after FP2.
“[It was] pretty much like every Friday for us, trying lots of different things [such as] the experimental floor on my side which didn’t work.
“Nothing we do to this car generally seems to work so… we’re trying different set ups, me and George went with much different setups in FP2 just to see if one way works and one way doesn’t.
“I’ll wait to hear how it went for him but for me it was a disaster. It was… it’s like the car’s getting worse, it’s getting more and more unhappy the more we do to it.
“So, I don’t know, we’ll keep working on it, and it is what it is; I think this is the car for the year.
“We’ll just have to tough it out and work hard on building a better car for next year.”
The seven-time world champion emphasised the reliance on kerbs in Montreal, particularly at the final chicane, but the bouncing is so bad that he can barely lean on them at all without the car threatening to spear off into the wall.
“One touch of the kerb and the thing goes flying, it’s so stiff” explained Hamilton.
“And here, you need to be able to use the kerbs, so it’s very, very tricky.
“It’s not the Montreal that I know, that I’m used to and that experienced throughout my career.
“It’s the worst that I’ve ever felt any car here, so I’m hoping overnight we can try and make some changes bur fundamentally, it’s just the fundamentals of the car… it is what it is. It’s going to be a struggle.
“It’s just a monumental fight the whole time to keep it out the wall,” he continued.
“When it bounces, when the car leaves the ground a lot, and then when it lands, it grips up and it goes in different directions and so you’re just trying to catch a car that jumps, hops, grips, hops, grips, it’s tough.
“It just keeps you on edge and there were some big hits today but we raise the car and it doesn’t make a difference.”
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Hamilton was in visible discomfort because of the pounding he took in Baku last weekend, but he was physically able to traverse day one in Canada relatively trouble free.
“I managed to get through the day okay,” he added.
“I’ve been ice baths and stuff for my back so I’m okay.”
Having exhausted the list of setup changes to try and improve the ride on the Mercedes, the German outfit have few places left that they can turn to.
“We’ve tried loads and loads of things so we’ve ticked them all off and those things don’t work so we’re going to have to find something else,” stated Hamilton.
“We’re way off but it’s to be expected with this car.”
Russell, meanwhile ended FP1 in sixth, before finishing seventh in the second session in what was a slightly better day for the 24-year-old.