Lewis Hamilton faces new concern as Mercedes admit they have no Plan B

Hamilton opens up on plans to remain in F1 ahead of new season

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Mercedes bosses have confirmed the team have no plan B in place if their W14 falls short of the leaders at the opening race in Bahrain next weekend. Technical director Mike Elliott stressed the team have upgrades coming to their new machine but says they will be an “evolution” of their current model.

He said: “So there is a bodywork [update] coming and it will look different. It won’t look like somebody else’s, it will look like an evolution of ours.”

When pushed on whether the team had a second design more aligned to Red Bull’s concept if their car was unsuccessful, Elliott simply added: “It’s not in our current plans.” Mercedes struggled in Bahrain despite team boss Toto Wolff admitting the porpoising issues had been fixed.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell failed to make an impression on the timesheets and appeared to lack performance compared to Red Bull. The Silver Arrows also suffered a hydraulics failure on Friday which limited their afternoon running.

The problems appeared to concern engineers who held an unplanned meeting after day two to get a handle on the issues. Mercedes’ assurances about their W14 concept come after Sky Sports F1 pundit Ted Kravitz suggested the team would have another direction in the pipeline.

He commented: “They’re giving their big idea, that was a failure last year, one more go. But I believe they have a ‘Plan B’ in production, and if they need to, they can go to a ‘Plan B’, which is the Red Bull or Ferrari style of doing things, in the middle of the season.

“At the moment they’re saying, look, we think we’ve got a proper handle on what went wrong last year. We still believe that our way is unique in the pit lane and having very slim sideboards is the way to go aerodynamically.”

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He also stressed Mercedes would likely have more parts coming for the start of the European season which could elevate the team further up the grid. This was supported by Russell who seemed to reveal new features could be added at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in May.

He explained: “When you look at the calendar as a whole, I think we have only got five races in the first two and a half, three months whereas at the end of the season you have probably got 10 or 11 in the same time span.

“So this season is going to be won or lost midway-to-end of the season, not in the first five races. As much as we want to go out there and win in Bahrain next weekend, we know that it is more important that we have the right car in the right window come race six, because that is when the big points are going to be won.”

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