Having spent the entirety of the 2022 season without a win, Lewis Hamilton would have hoped that Mercedes would have been able to provide him with a championship contending car once again this year.
Unfortunately for the 38-year-old, this is not at all the case, with Mercedes looking miles behind their rivals in terms of performance.
The Silver Arrows have already admitted that they have made a mistake by sticking with the zero sidepod approach, with Red Bull’s detailed approach clearly being the best.
Not only have Mercedes been outperformed by Red Bull and Ferrari once again so far this season, but Aston Martin also look to be stronger that the Silver Arrows, with Fernando Alonso scoring his 99th podium on his debut for the team.
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After Charles Leclerc was forced to retire from the Bahrain Grand Prix with an engine failure, Hamilton managed to finish in P5, a result which the Brit has claimed he is happy with as it was the most that he could have realistically hoped for.
“I’m definitely happy with the race, it was much better than qualifying,” said Hamilton.
“I’m generally happy in terms of my performance. The team did amazing on the pit stops. Just unfortunately the car is not there at the moment.
“We’re just lacking downforce, so we’ve got to really work hard to try and add that ASAP. Anything that can improve on, we’ve got to use it tomorrow, we’ve really got to push massively to try and close that cap. The Red Bull pace today was absolutely huge.”
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Hamilton treated fans to a spectacular half lap of wheel-to-wheel racing with Fernando Alonso during the Bahrain Grand Prix but the W14 simply did not have the pace to battle the Aston Martin, with George Russell being overtaken by both Alonso and his teammate Lance Stroll.
It has been reported that Mercedes’ upgrades for the W14 relating to their new development path should be operational around the time of the Grand Prix in Imola in a few races time, leaving Hamilton and Russell struggling for the immediate future.
The Silver Arrows will be hoping to stay in the fight with the top teams for the next few races before finally being able to hopefully challenge their rivals for pace.