F1 Bahrain GP: Lewis Hamilton unhappy with “average” feeling W14 after qualifying P7 in Sakhir
The British driver felt the progress made during practice did not carry over to Qualifying.
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Lewis Hamilton
Mercedes seem to have an underwhelming Qualifying session at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Silver Arrows expected themselves to be behind arch-rivals Red Bull and Ferrari. That indeed has been the case as both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton failed to make a solid start to the season. Hamilton stated his disappointment in the car after the session
The British driver mentioned going into the session without any expectations. The team showed some progress in the final practice session. Lewis Hamilton said, “I went in with an open mind.” The 38-year-old acknowledged the work done behind the scenes by the team to improve the W14. He explained, “We did a lot of work overnight with the engineers. And we did a great job and made a step forward.”
Unfortunately, the Mercedes driver admitted that things did not go as planned for the German team. He continued, “The car was feeling much more alive this morning. And all of a sudden we were in a different place today.” Moreover, Lewis Hamilton confessed the W14 simply did not get in the zone for him. Hamilton said, “But when we got to qualifying, the car just didn’t come alive. It felt kind of average.”
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“You can’t catch that,” Lewis Hamilton is not hoping for an improvement on race day
The 38-year-old dismissed any chances for Mercedes to close up the gap to Red Bull in the race. Lewis Hamilton discussed the gap of six-tenths of a second to Max Verstappen‘s pole position lap time. He stated, “A six-tenths [gap], you can’t catch that.” Although, the British driver did not rule out the prospects of the team catching up to its rival later in the year.
Lewis Hamilton concluded, “We were about six-tenths behind last year, but we had all the bouncing and all sorts of things, so it’s not impossible.” Thus, the 7-time world champion is confident that the Silver Arrows can focus throughout 2023 as the team has reduced the porpoising issues. Something that was even mentioned by George Russell recently.
Thus, it appears that Lewis Hamilton and George Russell will have a long race on Sunday. The two drivers will start P7 and P6, respectively, behind the Mercedes-supplied Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. Although it remains to be seen whether the Silver Arrows can give the top 2 teams a run for their money in the race, the chances look slim for now.
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Armaan Agarwal
(2310 Articles Published)