Lewis Hamilton demoralised as Mercedes woes continue at Australian Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton appeared deflated and frustrated with Mercedes still unable to bring in the changes needed to challenge further up the grid. The opening two races of the season have seen both Hamilton and George Russell fall well off the pace from both Red Bull and Ferrari.

There was some optimism over the two-week break before the Australian Grand Prix that some upgrades would be brought in to help push Mercedes further up the standings. While Hamilton was only four-tenths slower than Max Verstappen in FP1, there were still obvious issues with porpoising and the handling of the car in general.

But Mercedes dropped further down the standings in FP2 as they tried something different on both cars. Hamilton could only manage the 13th quickest time in the final session of the day, leaving more questions than answers.

And the seven-time world champion appeared dejected when asked to review the session.

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“It’s just nothing we change on the car makes a difference at the moment so that’s the difficult thing where you’re getting very optimistic and you make changes and then it doesn’t seem to want to improve,” Hamilton said. “We made some changes going into FP2. FP1 was better and FP2 ended up being a bit harder for me. It’s just a tricky car.”

Hamilton remains hopeful that better things are to come for Mercedes in the near future. But, for now, they’re powerless to compete towards the front of the grid.

“I don’t think it’s going to be tricky to find our way back, there’s just not a lot we can do,” he added. “This is the way it is so we just have to drive with it.

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“That’s the frustrating thing because you’re trying to push and trying to catch and even when you do a decent lap, it’s 1.2 seconds down.”

The Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc appear to be the ones to beat this weekend with Red Bull slightly off the pace so far. Sainz was incredibly five-tenths quicker than his team-mate in FP1, but the current championship leader went even faster in FP2 to become the only driver to put in a lap sub-1:19.

Alpine have also been quick around the revised Albert Park track with Fernando Alonso faster than Sergio Perez in FP2.

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