Jenson Button Identifies Lewis Hamilton Issue: "The Biggest Problem"

Lewis Hamilton's seating position affects his driving performance on the track. Jenson Button details why.

Jenson Button has given insight into Lewis Hamilton's statement about the Mercedes W14's seating position being too far forward. Having plenty of experience beside the driver, the British driver has the credibility to talk about Hamilton's confidence and skill behind the wheel. 

Mercedes driver and 7-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has been fairly vocal about his dissatisfaction with the position of his seat in the W14 Mercedes. According to the British driver, his seating position is much further forward than that of other cars such as Red Bull and Ferrari. This has given him the illusion of sitting on the front wheels, which is detrimental to his feeling while racing. 

Talking after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, the driver detailed what wasn't right about the car's seating position:

“I don’t know if people know, we sit closer to the front wheels than all the other drivers. Our cockpit is too close to the front.

“When you’re driving, you feel like you’re sitting on the front wheels which is one of the worst feelings to feel when you’re driving a car.

“If you were driving your car at home, and you put the wheels right underneath your legs, you would not be happy when you’re approaching the roundabout!

“So, what that does is it just really changes the attitude of the car and how you perceive its movement. And it makes it harder to predict, compared to when you’re further back and you’re sitting closer, more centre.

“It’s just something I’ve really struggled with.”

Hamilton's former teammate, Jenson Button, has shed some light on why the seat position is so crucial for the Mercedes driver's performance on the track and how it affects his confidence and performance. 

“It’s [to do] with what he’s not feeling. I think that’s the biggest problem with Lewis.

“The way he drives, he’s quite aggressive on the throttle, quite aggressive on the brake and he does everything through the steering wheel, so he really needs to feel what’s happening through the rear of the car through his arms.

“And he’s not getting that so he doesn’t have that confidence to push the car and these cars are tricky anyway, especially in qualifying, and if he doesn’t have that confidence, he’s not able to get the maximum out of it.”

Last weekend, the Australian Grand Prix saw Lewis Hamilton's pace suddenly improve against the likes of Aston Martin, with the Mercedes drivers even running ahead of Max Verstappen for a small number of laps. He saw himself finish the race in P2, his first podium of the year. While this was track-specific performance, there's plenty to take away from his Albert Park campaign.

The driver's performance is hoped to improve as we head into Baku thanks to analysis from this past weekend, and with the Brackley team expected to release major upgrades for the car closer to the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, it will hopefully only get faster. There's little known about what we should be expecting, although it's rumoured to be a substantial change.