After a difficult outing at the Austrian Grand Prix last weekend, in which Hamilton was 32 points behind Max Verstappen in the drivers’ standings, the world champion has no doubts about the difficult situation.
And while Mercedes will be rolling out some developments for the Silverstone race to close the gap on Red Bull, Hamilton is skeptical of their implications.
“We still have a little time, but it won’t fill the gap enough,” he said. “We have to do some work.”
A Red Bull upgrade push has helped the Milton Keynes team win the last five races in a row, with Hamilton not triumphing since the Spanish Grand Prix in May.
Mercedes has no doubt that Red Bull has the fastest car right now, but Hamilton also hopes that track characteristics have shifted to its rivals as well lately.
“The past races have been difficult and obviously he’s only racing that far ahead,” added Hamilton. “So there’s not much I can do about it.
“Of course I’m praying for a different scenario in the next race, but if you look at your car, it’s just on rails. So we give absolutely everything.
“For the past two weeks I’ve been to the factory trying to get as much out of the car as possible every week. But our car is just not doing well here [in Austria] for some reason. I really hope that this will resonate with the next. “
Also read:
Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas agrees that the Red Bull Ring layout didn’t play to Mercedes’ strengths and hopes things should be different at Silverstone.
“We’ve been driving the same track for two weeks and it’s clear that Red Bull is faster here – but it could be different on some other tracks,” said the Finn.
“I think this track suits your car pretty well, but nowhere else are they slow. Silverstone is very different. There are a lot more high speed turns and we’ll see.
“We have something planned for Silverstone in terms of new bits. I think after that it will be quiet about new parts, but we will keep pushing as hard as possible – but we know it will be tough. “
Additional reporting from Oleg Karpov and Adam Cooper
The post British GP upgrades are not enough to fill Red Bull F1 void first appeared on monter-une-startup.
