Lewis Hamilton brands new Mercedes ‘average’ as woes set to continue

F1 preview: A lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton has called Mercedes’ new W14 “average” after struggling in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix. The Mercedes star said the car “didn’t feel alive” after he could only manage P7 on Saturday afternoon. 

However, the seven-time champion still feels the team did better than they expected after a disappointing day on Friday. Hamilton said: “We went in with a really open mind. I woke up this morning thinking we were going to be a lot further behind, and so the fact we’re even getting into Q3 was great.

“We made a step forward today and the car was feeling much more alive this morning, and all of a sudden we were in a different place to where we were the day before. But then we got to qualifying and for me the car just didn’t feel alive, it felt kind of average.

“The direction I’ve gone with my set-up, I’m hoping it will work better tomorrow because I’ve tried to set it up for tomorrow, but it made it a little bit difficult for qualifying.”

George Russell will line up P6 after beating his more experienced team-mate by just four-hundredths of a second. But, the Mercedes pair were around six-tenths behind Verstappen’s pace in Q3.

Ferrari will line up on the second row of the grid with Charles Leclerc just pipping Carlos Sainz. Fernando Alonso was the surprise package with the Spaniard managing P5 with his Aston Martin.

Despite the gap to the leaders, Hamilton still feels Mercedes can be in the hunt at some stage this season. He added: “It’s not an impossible mountain to climb, so that’s a positive, and I know everyone back at the factory has been working so hard. 

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“We can definitely close the gap, we’ve just got really focus and push like never before.”

Russell admitted the team were “shocked” after Mercedes pace disappeared on Friday. He feels the Silver Arrows have made progress overnight but still accepts that Red Bull will be “too far ahead” to do anything in the race. 

The 25-year-old commented: “Our goal over the winter was to make sure we’ve got a car we can build upon and that there aren’t any significant problems. We spent probably three-quarters of last year problem solving and now I feel we’ve got a car which is nice to drive.

“It generally feels like a good car, and now we can focus on adding downforce and performance which is what the team have done for so long. There are definitely signs to be positive, but we’ve got a lot to improve.”

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