(Motorsport) Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday, over 50 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen. For the seven time World Champion, this is without a doubt a frustrating situation to be in and he said before the race that Mercedes were “on the wrong track” and would finish “either third or fourth”. Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Chequered Flag podcast on Wednesday, Hamilton said “Last year, there were things I told them. I said the issues that are with the car. I’ve driven so many cars in my life. I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn’t need. I think it’s really about accountability.
“It’s about owning up and saying, ‘Yeah, you know what? We didn’t listen to you. It’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work.’ We’ve got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team. That’s what we do. We’re still (multiple) world champions, you know? Just haven’t got it right this time. Didn’t get it right last year. But that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forwards.”
Mercedes feature a controversial zero side pod concept, a design that hasn’t paid off since last year but team principal Toto Wolff has insisted that they will not abandon the concept. Looking at Red Bull Racing’s dominance last season, most of the grid have used their framework to design their 2023 cars while George Russell has even claimed that Max Verstappen could win every single race of the 2023 season, despite the season just beginning.
In an interview, Toto Wolff said “One of the worst days in racing. Really not good at all, we were just lacking pace front, right, and centre. Red Bull is just on a different planet. That is what hurts because they are so far ahead, it reminds me of our best years because we just put a second on everybody else. That is the benchmark and we have to do one step after the other to come back and we can do that. We can, absolutely we can. I think it needs to be much more radical in the steps than I hope for a three tenths upgrade.”
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