F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Speaks Out On Mercedes' "Lost Performance"
Seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton has addressed the struggles he is facing along with the Mercedes team during the 2023 season so far.
Red Bull has dominated the first half of the season, winning all twelve races. Mercedes is currently running in second position in the constructors' standings but is still 256 points behind the Austrian team.
During an interview with the media following the Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed that sometimes his driving ability is not enough to bridge the gap to Red Bull, putting the difference in the standings down to the performance deficit of the W14 compared to the RB19. The British driver explained, as quoted by Silverarrows.net:
“I’m always trying to rely on my driving ability to make up for the deficit, but it’s not been ultimately enough in a lot of places.
“If you look at the race in Silverstone, you may not have seen it, but we were equal in time until Turn 13 to Max on a qualifying lap.
“Then we just lost the performance and speed after that."
Formula One is currently on the summer break with racing resuming for the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of the month. Red Bull has confirmed that they are already looking ahead to their 2024 F1 car and there will not be any further big upgrades brought to the RB19 this year. Mercedes, however, are planning on some more upgrades as they continue to close the gap.
Hamilton is currently in fourth position in the drivers' standings with 148 points, although he is only one point behind Fernando Alonso in third. George Russell has struggled to keep up with his teammate this year and is in sixth position with 99 points, the same amount of points as Charles Leclerc in fifth and seven points ahead of Carlos Sainz in seventh.