The Styrian Grand Prix, home of Red Bull Racing, begins in less than a week. And similar to last year, two consecutive race weekends will be held on the track. So you might think that Mercedes, and Lewis Hamilton in particular, will long to get the swift W12 out on the track, given their successful performance in 2020.
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However, this does not appear to be the case at the moment. The Briton, although the winner in Styria, is not expecting anything special this time. Why could you ask?
Well, the seven-time world champion is suspicious of Red Bull’s speed on the straight, which will most likely dampen Mercedes’ chances of their first race win since Barcelona.
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What did Lewis Hamilton say?
As Sky Sports reports, Hamilton reckoned that the “performance-hungry course” in Spielberg will obviously favor Red Bull.
“It’s a performance-hungry route with long, long straights. So we could see something similar [to France] – with the straight-line speed of the Red Bull, of course, ”said Hamilton after the French GP.
Formula 1 F1 – French Grand Prix – Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France – June 20, 2021 Red Bulls Max Verstappen celebrates with sparkling wine on the podium after winning the race alongside second placed Mercedes Lewis Hamilton and third placed Red Bull Sergio Perez REUTERS / Yves Herman won
The gap between him and Max Verstappen is widening every weekend. And so the Dutchman is 12 points behind his rival in the championship table.
Sergio Perez is also steadily moving closer to Hamilton, the gap is now 35 points. So it might only be a matter of time before Hamilton starts feeling the heat from behind as well.
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We can compete with them: Hamilton
Despite the underlying drawbacks, Hamilton is hoping he can face both Red Bull drivers. In order to be as fast as the cops, however, his team must maximize “absolutely everything”, said the Briton.
“But we have three days to see if we can make adjustments and improvements, and maybe if we maximize everything we can give them a run for their money,” he said.
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Formula 1 F1 – French Grand Prix – Circuit Paul Ricard, Le Castellet, France – June 20, 2021 Max Verstappen from Red Bull, Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes and Valtteri Bottas from Mercedes in action during the REUTERS / Eric Gaillard race
The race weekends in Austria will likely produce unpredictable weather throughout with constant rainfall. And this could be Mercedes’ only hope of stopping Red Bull from going too far on the points table.
So can the Brackley team deliver strong results on the high-speed circuit of the Red Bull Ring? Well we’ll know soon enough.
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View history: Lewis Hamilton’s biggest F1 crashes
The post Lewis Hamilton has a grim prediction for Mercedes F1 ahead of the ‘Power Hungry’ Steirian GP first appeared on monter-une-startup.
