Lewis Hamilton has “hope” as Mercedes issue F1 update that will be music to his ears

Everyone at Mercedes was visibly frustrated after an Italian Grand Prix which offered little to Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, but they have reason to be excited about their upcoming Singapore visit

Lewis Hamilton shares the positive outlook of his Mercedes team ahead of next weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix.

The Brit generally goes well at the Marina Bay Circuit, having won there four times, while it is also the site of one of his greatest-ever pole laps, in 2018. He might be able to recreate the latter this year but will do very well indeed to end Max Verstappen’s unprecedented winning streak.

The Red Bull racer made it 10 in a row last time out at Monza and has no intention of stopping there. With his team still far superior compared to its rivals in terms of car performance, the Dutchman will be the heavy favourite to continue his lethal run of form.

The Italian Grand Prix didn’t offer much for Hamilton to get excited about. He qualified eighth and finished the race sixth, with team-mate George Russell one place ahead. While he wasn’t expecting much from the Monza event, he has much higher hopes for his latest trip to Singapore.

“I feel like [Monza] might be the worst one for us,” the seven-time world champion said. “Singapore is all high downforce and, when we put our high downforce wing on, we generally are a little bit better. Not as bad as here. So I hope I’m right.”

His optimism is shared by his team. Specifically, trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has already looked ahead to what Marina Bay may hold for the Silver Arrows this year and gave plenty of reason for Mercedes fans to hope for a much better showing.

“There is a reason to think that the car will work better and that is because Singapore is a maximum downforce circuit,” he said in a video released by the team. “Our performance at the high downforce tracks like at Barcelona, Budapest and even Zandvoort, the car was working well and we’ve had a pretty strong performance.

“We’re hoping to be able to be a bit quicker there and get back to a position where we can challenge for podiums. The track, though, does throw up some pretty unique challenges and we’ve also got some layout changes for this year.

“There is a sequence of four corners near the end of the lap that has been removed where the track used to go underneath a grandstand through a tunnel. That’s now gone so we’ve got a longer straight which will change a little bit how the tyres are working.

“There is a bit less energy there but it’s also an abrasive tarmac. We’ve got the softest three compounds so it’s a pretty tough race on the tyres and it’s also a bumpy street circuit. Added to that, the race is run at night. Plenty of challenges for us to try and tackle then but we are going there optimistic for a strong performance.”