Lewis Hamilton is hoping Mercedes can get within a second of Red Bull this weekend after the reigning world champions dominated the first two races of 2023.
His team mate George Russell qualified over six tenth of a second off pole winner Sergio Perez at the last race in Jeddah. Hamilton lined up seventh on the grid having lapped over a second away from the pace. During the race Red Bull pulled away from their rivals by more than a second per lap at times.
Hamilton admitted his team mate had done a better job of perfecting the set-up of the team’s W14 chassis at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit.
“If you look at the last race, I think it was a decent result given the distance and the pace disadvantage we had in qualifying,” he told Sky. “Obviously George did a fantastic job all weekend, put the car exactly where it needed to be. I struggled a little bit with the balance that I had.”
Mercedes achieved a good result at the last race given the pace they had, said Hamilton. “We still managed to get fourth and fifth and we’re second in the constructors championship at the moment. We beat the Ferraris, who have definitely started with a better package than we have.”
Hamilton said it will take time for Mercedes to close the gap to their rivals and will have to rely on the conditions favouring them in the meantime.
“We’ve got a great group of people that are working really hard back at the factory that are trying to fix the issues that we have. It’s not something that’s going to happen in one race, it’s going to take a few races, hopefully as short as possible to get there.
“But this weekend, I think I’m just hoping for some rain, if I’m really honest, because I would make it a little bit more exciting for us from my point of view. I’m just hoping the gap isn’t a second and I hope that we can just hit the ground running with the set-up.”
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