Lewis Hamilton clarified that he was not “downbeat” about Mercedes’ struggles in Formula 1’s Bahrain Grand Prix, citing it has a “platform” to build from this season.
Following successive underwhelming campaigns since F1’s return to ground effect cars in 2022, Mercedes enacted a complete overhaul with its 2024 challenger.
The marque had received a positive assessment from both drivers during winter testing amid its ambition to eradicate the “spiteful” rear-end traits of its predecessor.
However, that failed to transpire in the Bahrain season-opener as George Russell slipped from running second to fifth while Hamilton trailed two places further back.
Red Bull’s domination continued as Max Verstappen surged to the win, with Hamilton admitting that Mercedes’ 46.7s deficit to the Dutchman came as a surprise.
But the seven-time champion asserts that he remains satisfied with Mercedes’ W15 car despite the setback, insisting it provides a solid base compared to last term.
“I feel good – I don’t feel downbeat,” Hamilton assessed.
“But what I feel is that the last couple of years, we’ve had all these problems. And we spent several races undoing all those problems, like trying to figure out what those problems were, as opposed to now we have a platform that we can start adding shit to, adding bricks and stuff.
“So now it’s a building process from here, and I think we’re a great team in doing that.”
Asked about previous comments regarding Mercedes’ 2024 car being one he could compete with, Hamilton warned: “Too early to tell. The set-up wasn’t ideal today.
“We’re very close to the McLarens. But, if I had qualified better, I would probably easily have finished fifth today even with the problems. So I think take that out of it, and I probably wouldn’t have been crazy far behind a Ferrari. But we’re still third quickest.”
Hamilton had qualified ninth and his hopes of maximising a race-orientated set-up came undone when both Mercedes drivers were limited by engine cooling concerns.
“For a while like my battery was dead, so down the straights I was just derating the whole way down the straight,” he explained.
“So I lost a lot of ground to the McLarens. I was fixing that out for some laps, and that took a good 10 laps, and I lost plenty of seconds through that.
“And then, after that, was just really trying to get back on it, and catch up, as soon we got that fixed. And then there was a bit of overheating of the brakes. Then in general, the performance was so-so.”
Along with Mercedes, Ferrari also sustained extensive trouble with brakes as Charles Leclerc struggled with a 100-degree split between his front brake temperatures.
Regarding Mercedes’ own issues during the 57-lap race, Hamilton added: “We didn’t know how it was going to be today, but it definitely was worse than we planned.”
Hamilton rued being on the wrong side of close margins over a single lap that left him with too much ground to make up in the race once he ran into various problems.
However, the Briton overtook Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin and then capitalised on an undercut to get past McLaren’s Oscar Piastri when he emerged out of the pits.
“Yeah, I had a little bit of fun,” he commented in relation to the battle he had with Piastri into Turn 1, where the Australian ran deep and opened the door for Hamilton.
“And then I was catching at the end, I was feeling racier towards the end. But the gap was so big, I lost so much at the beginning of the race that unfortunately I was just out of it.”
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