Hamilton from Mercedes to Ferrari? The British driver responded to speculation about his transfer. What did he say about his car this year?

The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team did not have an ideal start to the new edition of the queen of motorsport. The German team had problems with its car already in pre-season tests, and it was on full display in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton then admitted in a recent interview that he knew their cars would be bad at first sight.

Sixth and seventh in Saturday’s qualifying, fifth and seventh in Sunday’s race. It was not an ideal opening weekend of racing for Mercedes in the new F1 season, with fifth-placed Lewis Hamilton losing just under 51 seconds to Bahrain Grand Prix victor Max Verstappen.

Seventh-placed George Russell lost an even 55 seconds, which is a really big deal for Mercedes. As Hamilton said in his post-race interview, the German team’s monoblocs were only fourth fastest at the Sakhir circuit.

Almost throughout the race, it was true that Aston Martin in particular was much better in terms of performance, not to mention Red Bull.

A big improvement is probably not to be expected in Saudi Arabia either, as the circuit in Jeddah could be more suited to Ferrari in terms of performance, as well as to the excellent Red Bull and last but not least to Aston Martin.

Hamilton’s statement

After last year’s failed season, Mercedes has decided to stay true to its concept with virtually zero sidepods. But as it seems, the German team has once again failed to master its car in terms of technology and is thus very far behind the others.

“I’ve heard from the team that we probably won’t be right at the front, but we should be somewhere close. It was a bit of a shock when that turned out not to be the case,” Hamilton said in a pre-race interview in Jeddah, also quoted by Racing News 365.

“I knew we were not in a good place when I first saw the car. It still looked very different compared to our competitors, ” the seven-time champion admitted.

He also adds that at that moment, the active F1 legend doesn’t care what the car looks like or what colour it is painted. He made his frustration known when he recently said that Mercedes didn’t listen to him when developing the W14 and now they are where they are.

“Of course there are times when we disagree with some of the team. The important thing is that we continue to communicate with each other, that we are pulling together. I still trust the team 100%, it’s my family and I’ve been here for a long time, so I have no plans to go anywhere else,” Hamilton said, dismissing speculation about his potential departure to Ferrari.

In conclusion, Hamilton added that Mercedes must start taking bold steps to reduce their loss. According to him, Red Bull will have it in its hands this year if Ferrari, for example, cannot stop it.

F1, Racing News 365