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Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has made a rather worrying prediction about his Mercedes team. The Briton has insisted that rival cars like Ferrari and Red Bull are currently ahead of the English manufacturer.
Reigning Constructors’ champion Mercedes set the fastest time to start pre-season in Barcelona. They also grabbed headlines at the pre-season testing in Bahrain with a radical new-look W13 car. But the eight-time champions have been rather struggling for notable lap times in Bahrain.
Since getting to Bahrain, Mercedes have not had a good outing on the track. And while its still only pre-season testing, Lewis Hamilton doesn’t believe that he has the best car on the grid heading into 2022.
While speaking to reporters after the pre-season testing in Bahrain, Hamilton claimed that Mercedes is struggling to extract performance under the hugely altered design regulations for 2022.
The 37 year old was quick to lower expectations for Mercedes as he said that the team will not be thinking of the world championship just yet, “It is too early to have those kind of thoughts about the world championship, but at the moment I don’t think we will be competing for wins,“
Hamilton and Russell expressed concerns over Mercedes’ W13 oversteering and bouncing up and down on long straights. The porpoising effect was visible in Bahrain.
While Mercedes have been able to win the opening race of the season for the past three times in a row, Hamilton now feels that the team will be unable to compete at the top level to commence the campaign. The F1 legend hinted that Ferrari will be the favorites to win the Bahrain GP next week,
He concluded, “We’re not the quickest at the moment. I think Ferrari look to be the quickest and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us or McLaren – but we’re currently not at the top.”
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