Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes Formula 1 driver, claims the team need the flawless six months of its development history to match the Red Bull. He believes that only then the team could close the gap next year.
Mercedes performance at Japanese Grand Prix remained disappointing. The team could only managed to be the fourth quickest. It showed the team that how great the gap between the two remains.
Hamilton remained critical of the Mercedes design approach. He maintains that there is no shame in accepting the gap.
“I have no idea where the car is going to be next year, but we’re a long, long way away,” he told Sky Sports.
“We’ve got to hope for the next six months to be the greatest six months of development that we’ve ever had to close that gap and to be really banging on the door.”
Nonetheless, Hamilton remain hopeful despite a sizeable gap. He believes that the team can work around the situation. He cited example of the McLaren which revamped its approach to yield two places at the podium.
“The evidence is there at McLaren, and we can’t turn a blind eye to that – to look at what they’ve done and go in that direction,” he said. “That is the direction.
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“But I truly believe my team can do it, and we’ve always been great at putting downforce on the car. It’s just that, with the way our car currently works, adding downforce doesn’t work, it just makes it bounce more.
“Hopefully with a change in philosophy, we’ll be back to where the team deserves because this is a world championship team, we still are an amazing team. I have absolute faith in everyone but decisions that are made in this period of time are critical for our trajectory.”
Last year, Mercedes worked on similar and marked a victory at Brazilian Grand Prix. It provided the team with confidence that it was on the right path.
The Brazilian victory proved to be a false hope as it keep struggling in 2023 season.
Hamilton said: “I’m giving absolutely everything. But it’s tough on weekends like this. Particularly where the car is such a handful.
“Basically, it’s the exact same as last year. Feeling-wise, the car felt just the same as last year. It’s bouncing and sliding, so that’s tough given how much work we’ve done to progress. And we’re not any closer to the front, at least here.”
