Chinese Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton questions his ability to surpass Mercedes teammates
Lewis Hamilton states that it is “highly unlikely” Ferrari will contend with Mercedes for the win at Sunday’s Chinese Grand Prix after securing third on the grid, trailing Kimi Antonelli and George Russell.
Hamilton engaged in a battle with Russell at the beginning of Saturday’s sprint race in Shanghai but ultimately finished behind the Mercedes, ending up in third place behind teammate Charles Leclerc by the time the chequered flag was waved.
After qualifying over 0.8 seconds behind the leading Mercedes in the opening round in Australia, Hamilton narrowed the gap to 0.351 seconds in China, yet he still believes his former team possesses too much speed to challenge in the race on Sunday.
“I think it’s highly unlikely that we’ll be able to beat them in the race,” Hamilton remarked. “In our statistics, they have an advantage of between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds [in] race pace.
“Whether or not we observed that in the first race, I think in clear air, they’re just ahead of us at the moment. So I don’t know.
“Perhaps with strategy, something could happen. Maybe at the start, there might be a chance. I definitely need to ensure I don’t overheat my tyres trying to either keep pace with them or fend off one behind. So I need to perform better tomorrow.”
Hamilton capitalized on a strong start to contest Russell for the lead in the sprint race, similar to how his teammate Charles Leclerc had done at the start of the Australian Grand Prix the previous weekend.
However, Leclerc, who qualified fourth in China, is skeptical that Ferrari’s advantage at the start line will be sufficient to place them in contention for victory over the full duration of Sunday’s race.
“No, I mean, they are very strong, for sure,” Leclerc commented regarding Mercedes. “And they currently have this pace advantage, which is quite significant.
“I think that especially at the start of the race, we seem to have some flexibility with our deployment, etc. And they appear to struggle.
“Also, the fact that when you start battling heavily with batteries, it tends to slow them down and keeps you in the fight.
“So hopefully that will be the case tomorrow. The race should be quite thrilling, both from the outside and from within the cockpit.”
Hamilton mentioned that Ferrari is concentrating on enhancing its qualifying performance in comparison to Mercedes and suspects that the performance gap is related to the power unit.
“Whether they have more energy or more crank power, we can’t say for certain; it’s impossible to know,” he stated. “But they are exceptionally quick in qualifying, particularly, and we are working to improve in that area.
“Then in the race, it becomes a bit closer. I don’t know why, but I’m thankful that it is somewhat closer during the race.
“It’s not close enough. We are definitely feeling a lack of power when we are behind them. It’s really, really challenging to keep up, and it’s evident they have more ground.
“They are just pulling away for longer. That’s what I was trying to do this morning. I was attempting to make up time through the corners, but it just wasn’t making any difference.
“I was just wearing out my tyres.”
Source: espn.com
