Hamilton finished ninth in the second training session on Friday in Sakhir, 1.2 seconds ahead of reigning world champion Max Verstappen in the Red Bull, with team-mate George Russell in fourth about six tenths behind.
But while Russell’s seemingly encouraging lap came after a short run, the team is concerned that it’s far behind than that on high fuel runs.
The Brackley Outfits tested several solutions on Hamilton and Russell’s car to address handling and porpoising issues, which included Hamilton on a floor specification that Russell used in FP1, but according to the seven-time world champion, it still remains. still did not come closer to find. Solutions.
When asked to draw parallels with the start of last season, as Hamilton qualified four-tenths before relegation after struggling in the pre-season, he says Mercedes problems are much bigger this time around.
“Compared to this year, we’ve had a lot, a lot less problems in the past. We’re facing a lot, a lot bigger problems this year,” Hamilton said Friday night.
“And everything we do to try to fix it doesn’t really change that. It seems like there will probably be a more long-term fix, so nothing short-term.”
Team-mate Russell has announced that Mercedes will stay behind Red Bull and Ferrari for over a second and is just about on par with midfielders Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri as he sets out for a weekend of damage limitation.
George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Pictures
“I think it’s clear from the round that we’re definitely not where we want to be,” he added. “I think we’ve made some progress in resolving some issues, but the pace is not there at the moment.
“We are far away from the pace of Red Bull, Ferrari. Even the lovers of Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri seem to be at our pace or even faster, so we have a bit of work to do.
“I think the high fuel rate is a bit more representative and we were consistently about a second slower than where our rivals are.
“We still have race weekends on our hands, and we still have to make the best of this situation and maybe limit damage, but we have to watch.”
Russell thinks Mercedes’ new W13 has a lot of potential, but so far the eight-time World Cup winning team has failed to open it, calling every possible fix “one step forward and two steps back”.
“We’re really throwing everything at the moment to try to unlock the potential that we think it has, but we’m just really struggling to get in for the moment,” he explained.
“Everything we try is maybe one step forward, two steps back and there is always a bit of limitation so it takes time.
“I mean, we all hope we’ve solved it for this weekend, but as things stand at the moment, we’re in a fight, and we have a job to do.”
“We really need to go over the data tonight to understand why we’re both struggling with the car.”
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