During the opening practice session for the US Grand Prix 2019, on Friday, Lewis Hamilton struggled heavily. He later revealed that he got a massive headache from running over the bumps at the Circuit of The Americas. In fact, the Briton dubbed it “the bumpiest track by far that I have ever been on.”
The world champion elect reported numerous severe bumps on the circuit during his installation laps in FP1. It was worth noting that onboard cameras from the cars backed up Hamilton’s complaints. This was because, a number of drivers were caught out and turned the sessions into an impromptu ballet performance.
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The Mercedes driver confessed that he was “not feeling good” owing to the bumps that left him with a headache.
“It was the bumpiest track by far that I have ever been on. I had such a headache,” Hamilton said. “The bumps are not such a bad thing in some places because it just adds characteristics, it adds that character to a circuit. So I’m not a fan of completely smooth circuits.”
“But this one is like massive, massive bumps, and the problem for us is that we don’t have much suspension. Our suspension moves like this much, so it’s usually your butt on the floor, and your spine takes all the compression, so I was feeling horrible.”
“I had a massive headache after P1, I had to lay down, I was not feeling great. We made some changes to make it a little bit better for the second one so it wasn’t feeling as bad through P2, so fingers crossed.”
Speaking about a way to tackle the problem, Hamilton suggested that drivers adjusting their braking points. However, he hoped that the track organisers made alterations in the future.
Lewis Hamilton noted that some bumps were there before, and gave the circuit some character. In other words, it offered a challenge.
However, the Mercedes driver mused that FP1 was “pretty hardcore” but was sure that all drivers will be able to navigate around the issue.
He concluded, “When you look at the onboards, the Ferraris just sail through. I don’t know if they run higher aero or they have a softer suspension, I’m not quite sure.”
“But we’ll just deal with it, we’ll keep working on it. I might have to put a pillow in my seat or something!”
