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The five-millimetre change Lewis Hamilton made in 2016 that opened up a whole ‘new world’ of F1 performance
Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes F1 WO7 Mercedes PU106C Hybrid turbo on track  during the Ab...
Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images

Formula 1 is all about precision and even the tiniest change made to the car can have huge consequences.

Carlos Sainz’s detailed feedback of his new Williams was the perfect example of how detailed setting up an F1 car is and how important it is to make sure everything is correct.

The margins are becoming increasingly fine between teams and drivers, with some qualifying sessions last year seeing all 20 cars separated by less than a second.

It means that the ever-decreasing amount of testing drivers are allowed to do puts even more pressure on next month’s pre-season test and the limited hours of practice at every race weekend to nail a car’s set-up.

Lewis Hamilton is no stranger to having to make minute changes to his cars throughout his career.

Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes F1 WO7 Mercedes PU106C Hybrid turbo, Nico Rosberg of German...
Photo by Charles Coates/Getty Images

Ferrari are already planning fixes for Hamilton’s 2025 car, but until he gets the chance to drive it in Bahrain in February, he won’t know how close it is to his desired setup.

Hamilton arrives at Ferrari as a seven-time world champion, but it’s often forgotten that he only won one title in his first seven years in the sport.

It shows that he needed plenty of time to refine his preferred framework in an F1 car, and comments he made on Mercedes’ YouTube channel have highlighted how one minuscule adaptation completely changed how he drove during races.

Lewis Hamilton’s setup change that opened up a ‘new world’ of F1 performance at Mercedes

Hamilton was talking to Johnny Herbert in 2016 about his driving style and during an onboard shot, he explained: “There are things that I’m looking for.

“It’s just like targeting…like with a gun, you’re targeting the turn points.”

Hamilton then went on to talk about the difficulties he faced the previous season and continued: “Last year, I was struggling for some reason.

“I was trying to figure out what I was struggling with. I raised my seat up and all of a sudden a new world appeared!

“It was like, oh my god, now I can see. And it was only like five millimetres that I raised my seat and all of a sudden I could see so much more.”

Will Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes difficulties follow him to Ferrari in 2025?

A tiny change in Hamilton’s seating position made a massive difference to his performance and he didn’t know it at the time, but would help him go on to win several more championships at Mercedes.

It highlights how important testing is in Formula 1 with Hamilton given the time to try different setups and figure out what works best for him and the aerodynamics of the car.

Unfortunately, the ground effect era hasn’t been kind to the 40-year-old.

Mercedes have struggled for years to nail the current regulations and understand why they’re so slow at some tracks and have similar difficulties working why they’re fast at others.

Hamilton has explained to Frederic Vasseur why he struggled in qualifying last year and will know he can’t afford a repeat of that underperformance.

George Russell outqualified his more experienced teammate throughout 2024 and in Charles Leclerc, he’s got an even trickier teammate to contend with.

However, Hamilton has developed a reputation for finding solutions to problems mid-season and will know that if he’s not at the same level as Leclerc at the first race of 2025 in Australia, he’ll be able to find a way to match the Monegasque driver as the campaign goes on.

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