"Gap can easily open again"- Lewis Hamilton discloses why Red Bull is ahead of Mercedes in 2022 season
Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton claimed that although the W13 has performed well in the Mexican GP qualifying, it cannot be trusted with every race. The Briton thought the W13 had performed superiorly at a rare few circuits this year.
While speaking at a post-qualifying press conference, Hamilton's teammate George Russell answered a question regarding the pace of next year. He told AD Sportwereld that the W13 performed well because the Mexican circuit suited its characteristics:
"I think it’s really exciting to see the progress we’re making as a team but we’ve seen our car performance fluctuate pretty substantially across the course of this season and this is certainly a circuit that probably suits our car characteristics, and because of the altitude, the drag is less penalising. Obviously Red Bull have a really efficient car and have being taking a huge amount of lap time – over half a second – at many tracks out of us just in a straight whereas here that was less noticeable so that was probably the gap… probably why this weekend we probably the fastest car so far but definitely making a lot of progress."
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While Russell pointed out the progress, Lewis Hamilton was hopeful of improvement. He, however, did admit that RB-18 performs better overall and can easily open the gap again:
"I mean George answered it. Yeah, I mean, this is just one race so of course, we've definitely made progress but you'll see potentially at the next races, the gap can easily open again. I think the Red Bull generally seems to work everywhere and ours works in only a couple places at the moment. So we do have time to try and fix it and all is not lost. Yeah. I'm hoping that the team manages to fix it for next year."
Mercedes have struggled to claim a single win this season. The team has performed significantly well at hardly three or four circuits on the calendar this year. While the Mexican GP is another shot at a win for them, the W13 lacks significant pace.
Lewis Hamilton laments lost pole after engine problems at Mexican GP
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton's lap time was deleted after he crossed track limits at turn three during qualifying. However, he was almost three-tenths slower on his second attempt than Max Verstappen.
GREAT JOB GUYS!!! That's P2 for George and P3 for Lewis on the #MexicoGP grid!!!!!! 👏👏👏👏👏👏 https://t.co/1diclKtAPS
After somehow securing a P3, Lewis Hamilton told the media post-qualifying that:
"There are definitely positives from today. For us to be second and third I think is amazing. The car has been feeling great this weekend. I had some problems with the engine in Q3, I'm not quite sure what it was but I definitely feel like there was quite a bit of time left on the table. Still, for us to be there and to be that close is amazing. Everyone back at the factory should be really, really proud. I just hope that we can race these guys tomorrow."
Red Bull's Sergio Perez is next to Lewis Hamilton in tomorrow's race. If the Silver Arrows wish to win the GP tomorrow, the outfit will have to pull off an effective trick to beat the faster Red Bull.