In the Sunday grand prix, Hamilton came in sixth, one spot ahead of his two-stopping colleague George Russell. Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who won his fifth race in a row, finished about 35 seconds behind the leading Mercedes.

After the race, the seven-time world champion played down the significance of the modifications, claiming they had “not a big difference.”

“They are small steps, but very, very small,” Hamilton continued.

“During the second stint, I was running at a similar pace to the guys in the front.” However, it appears that we are still short by two or three tenths.

After two disappointing seasons of lackluster competitiveness, Mercedes manager Toto Wolff stated he feels “more confident” his team is not on the proper development path, despite the seeming small step ahead.

“I believe that the current state of the car is a result of the small improvements we are making, rather than a miraculous update that puts the car in a better balance window and boosts its overall performance,” the guy said.

“However, there are situations in which you improve by a tenth or a tenth and a half, while the other teams continue to advance.”

“We are on a trajectory where we are improving the car, and we can see that. As long as the kind of direction is correct, it will do like this [gestures], and I feel more confident now than it was before.”

When Hamilton went wide at Acque Minerali and tumbled through the gravel, it was a significant mistake that he committed during the race.

Hamilton said, “I think [I lost] probably about five seconds with that off.”

After that, I trailed Fernando and lost a significant amount of time there, so I estimate that I lost a total of eight seconds.

It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t lose any places.