Lewis Hamilton makes bleak prediction of United States GP chances despite new upgrades | F1 | Sport

Lewis Hamilton has lowered expectations of a Mercedes resurgence despite the Silver Arrows bringing new upgrades for the United States Grand Prix. The German manufacturer has confirmed a series of aerodynamic upgrades for the weekend in a bid to close the gap to Max Verstappen and Red Bull. 

However, Hamilton has revealed he was not too optimistic of success despite the new changes. The seven-time champion said he had an “open mind” but had learned the lessons of previous weekends where new parts have failed to bring performance gains. 

Speaking in the press conference, Hamilton said: “You can expect we are going to try everything as we always do. I don’t want to get my hopes up. A lot of work has naturally gone into the upgrade as it always does and I’m really really proud of everyone for the work that’s gone in.

“But in the past we’ve had expectations, ‘oh this is going to bring a tenth’, and then we struggle to extract that.

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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted the new team’s new upgrades would not change their fortunes overnight. However, he has stressed there was a hope it could bring the manufacturer “a step closer” to challenging. 

This was supported by trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin who confirmed the new parts would help the team for next season as well. 

Speaking ahead of the weekend, he explained: “It’s our final step of aero development and that will hopefully give us a bit more performance, but importantly, with every step we are learning more and more, and that learning we can carry into next year – so that’s part of it.

“Also, there a few bits where we have taken some weight out of components that will hopefully get the car closer to the weight limit [the minimum permitted being 798kg].”