Lewis Hamilton declares his fears about the ‘challenging’ Qatar GP

Lewis Hamilton is concerned about Mercedes’ performance at Qatar.

Lewis Hamilton declares his fears about the ‘challenging’ Qatar GP

Lewis Hamilton (via Imago)

Mercedes appeared to have a difficult outing at the fast and flowy Suzuka almost a fortnight ago. The W14 seems to struggle on high-speed circuits throughout the 2023 season. With Lusail being the next circuit in the Calendar, Lewis Hamilton comments on the team’s expected challenges at Qatar.

Hamilton expressed his dismay with the car’s performance at Suzuka; he said that the W14 was on a “knife edge” throughout his laps in qualifying. Hamilton expects similar problems at Lusail as he said, as reported by motorsportweek.com, “It’s [Mercedes’ performance] constantly shifting. We know coming here (Qatar) that this is a medium and high-speed circuit (the Lusail circuit); this is not where our strengths are. And so it will be a challenge.” 

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The seven-time world champion, however, remained positive about the team’s chances against the charging Ferraris. The Maranello outfit has been closing down the gap to the Silver Arrows in the constructor’s standings in recent races. Ferrari are now only 20 points adrift of Mercedes’ 305 points and will look to beat the Germans at Qatar.

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With Max Verstappen almost assured of winning his third World Championship in Qatar, Hamilton will look to keep the Prancing Horse behind as Red Bull hope to have a clear path toward even more motorsport history. Ferrari outscored Mercedes for the third consecutive weekend at the Japanese Grand Prix. Hamilton said “We know that we’re realistic and who we can compete with. We generally won’t be able to compete with the Red Bull. But of course, we’re hopeful that we can fight with the Ferraris this weekend.” 

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Mercedes’ decision to replace Valtteri Bottas with George Russell comes under heavy scrutiny

The former Williams manager, Peter Windsor, thinks Mercedes was a better team with Bottas than Russell. Mercedes decided to not renew Bottas for 2022, instead deciding to promote the young George Russell from the Williams garage.

Valterri Bottas, Peter Windsor, George Russell (via imago)
Valterri Bottas, Peter Windsor, George Russell (via imago)

The former Title Winning Team-Boss said, “I just come back to my thing of… if you’ve got Lewis, you don’t actually need George. If you’ve got George, you don’t need Lewis. It’s an imbalanced team, always has been, always will be, and that is the problem with it.” Windsor pointed out how Bottas was the ideal teammate for Lewis Hamilton and how the Veteran kept vouching for the Kiwi’s retention.

The recent tussle between the Mercedes duo at the Japanese GP adds weight to Windsor’s comments. It’s not clear who the number 1 driver at Mercedes is this season. When Bottas was employed at Mercedes, he was the clear number 2 driver behind Lewis Hamilton. Windsor thinks this issue has started infecting the Silver Arrows.

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