Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton admits that Mercedes is miles away from Red Bull when it comes to speed and that they have simply missed the train in the car development race.
“We are miles away from them so we have a lot of work to do,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after the Austrian GP.
“It’s all hands on deck for us, and I know it already is. Red Bull has clearly brought a lot of upgrades in the past races and we have none. We also have to bring something and find some speed, otherwise we will often see results like today.”
It took Hamilton a while to make his way forward and once he did he damaged his car on the curbs. That meant that he had to hand over his position to his teammate and had no choice but to survive with a fourth place as a result.
“I said before the race that it would be very difficult to beat Max but of course it was disappointing to lose so much downforce at the back of the car and not be able to hold on to second place.”
“I would have been second. I was in second place when it suddenly broke down. It would have been an easy second place. But I clearly wasn’t able to get those guys for me anymore.”
“I was no more or no less about the kerbstones than the others but suddenly it broke. I have no idea what just happened but there was a lot of damage.”
This does mean that Hamilton sees Verstappen further out in the standings for the world championship. The young Dutchman is now thirty-two points ahead of Hamilton and Red Bull is now forty-four points ahead of Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
“We lost a lot of points today,” said Hamilton. But with only nine races left of the scheduled twenty-three, the championship is far from lost.
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