Hamilton - No 'life-changing' fix in rare Mercedes sim session

Lewis Hamilton has declared to finding nothing "life-changing" following a rare visit to the Mercedes simulator in a bid to hunt down Max Verstappen in the F1 title race.

Verstappen and Red Bull have now won four consecutive races following Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix triumph that has allowed the Dutch driver to open an 18-point gap over his Mercedes rival in the drivers' standings.

Ahead of racing again at the Red Bull Ring this weekend for the Austrian GP, the team has taken a 40-point lead over Mercedes in the constructors' championship.

With Mercedes searching for answers to try and arrest the slump, Hamilton returned to Brackley for simulator work, an aspect of the job he has never previously liked.

“I can’t say that I’ve necessarily been enjoying it," said Hamilton.

"After those few difficult races we have had I just went in to see if there was any way I could try and help the team just be better prepared. “There has been a couple of good things from it but it’s not life-changing so I will continue to work from [simulator driver] Anthony [Davidson], and we’ve drivers on there that do a lot of work.

"Just working on the processes of how we communicate with them on their programme so we are getting the right things tested so overall it has been positive.”

Mercedes still searching for Red Bull Ring performance

In a bid to prevent two identical races at the same venue, Pirelli will bring tyres one step softer for this weekend.

Although this is unlikely to drastically alter the characteristics of each car, Hamilton insists he has a positive mindset even though he trailed Verstappen by 18 seconds before pitting on the penultimate lap on Sunday to claim the fastest-lap point.

"[I'm] really just trying to figure out in my mind where else I could take the set-up," added Hamilton. "Everyone is working so hard to try and see what we can extract, what more we can extract from the car.

“Obviously, there is short term and long term. So for me, just figuring out what I can do differently this weekend to eke out a little bit more performance and that is really what I have been putting my energy towards.”

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