Lewis Hamilton has revealed he finds the challenge of Formula 1’s 2017 cars much more enjoyable than those raced in previous years.
The wider, faster cars introduced this season were designed to push drivers physically as well as be driven more aggressively for longer which has been reflected in the races and qualifying so far.
Certainly, they have produced a style of racing very different from last year when fuel and tyre saving made races much less exciting for the men behind the wheel.
“I quite like that the cars difficult to drive,” Hamilton commented ahead of the most anticipated race yet with the new cars this weekend in Monaco.
“It’s like jumping on… like when you watch people get on the bull, jump on the bull, try and tame the bull, it’s the same, kind of…
“In this car it’s not easy, it’s a challenge, those cars I’ve had in the past which are beautiful to drive [and] a lot easier to set-up, I like that this is a challenge.”
The three-time world champion also admits the new rules have allowed the entire team to show their abilities due to the detail they have to go into to optimise performance.
“It puts myself and the engineers on the edge, it makes us feel a lot more meticulous with the decisions we make, the directions we go,” the Briton explained.
“I have to work a lot harder to balance the car, which you saw over the radio in the last race.
“But over the year, as we understand it more and more, and understand the tyres more, we’ll refine it and the car will get easier to drive for sure.”
Though first practice in Monaco was largely uneventful as the drivers eased into the weekend, Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas is expecting the streets of Monte Carlo to become more perilous as they push harder.
“Yes, the cars are now wider, so that makes the track, in a way, narrower,” he said considering the impact the new cars will have on driving in Monaco. “Some of the corners, especially the medium high-speed corners are going to be quite a lot quicker, so it should be more of a challenge that before.
“Like we’ve seen and all the drivers are commenting, we need to push these cars harder to achieve the limit and maintain the absolute limit of the grip. So it’s going to be definitively more challenging than before.”
