Lewis Hamilton admitted that F1's new super-clipping effect at the Japanese Grand Prix "is not great" after an onboard camera from Max Verstappen revealed a dramatic speed drop through 130R.
What the onboard showed
The FP1 clip captured Verstappen hitting about 320 kph on the approach to 130R. Because the car was recharging the battery while still at full throttle, almost 50 kph was lost through the corner and on the run to the final chicane.
What the teams and FIA changed for the weekend
After concerns that battery management was affecting qualifying and driver input, rules were tweaked for this weekend so drivers can only use 8 MJ of electrical energy instead of 9 MJ. The idea is to reduce the extent to which energy deployment is a deciding factor.
Hamilton's read on the day
Hamilton ended up sixth in both practice sessions. He was clear about where his team needs to make gains and how the super-clipping effect complicates things.
- Balance and setup: Hamilton said the car "generally feels okay" but is not quick enough. He put a lot of the blame on balance and setup choices.
- Straight-line speed: He pointed out they are losing about 0.4 seconds on the straight into Turn 1 compared with McLaren. Deployment of electrical energy is part of that loss.
- Super-clipping impact: Hamilton called the effect "definitely not great." He described moments of arriving at corners while "kind of coasting in because you've got no power," which he said is the least enjoyable part of the change.
Closing thought
Despite the deployment headaches, Hamilton added that the car feels "really good through all the sections" when it is set up properly. The immediate task for Mercedes is tidy setup work overnight and better management of energy deployment to claw back the lost tenths.
