Lewis Hamilton is expecting an incredibly challenging Saturday at the Spanish Grand Prix, with Mercedes having struggled for pace on the opening day at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
Friday won’t have left the Silver Arrows feeling particularly good, with both George Russell and Hamilton having struggled.
Russell ended the opening day in eighth whilst Hamilton could only salvage 11th, just over six tenths behind usual pacesetter Max Verstappen.
The new concept seemingly isn’t delivering the performance it was expected to, with Hamilton having admitted that the side need to “extract more” from the W14 over a single lap.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
“It’s okay, we’re fighting as hard as we can. I would say it was a difficult day one, P1 and P2, just getting on top of the tyres and the deg. Our car feels like… the car,” Hamilton concerningly said.
“We’re just focusing on… I think the long-run pace didn’t look terrible, we’ve just got to work on trying to figure out how we can extract more on a single lap.”
Based on how the car performed on the opening day of the seventh round, the seven-time World Champion is expecting making Q3 to be a “struggle”, with the 38-year-old noting that several teams have made “impressive” progress having introduced upgrades.
Whilst Red Bull are comfortably clear, fifth to 10th remains very close, with just two tenths having separated Esteban Ocon in P5 and Pierre Gasly in P10 at the close of FP2.
READ: Fernando Alonso eagerly defends the boss’ son after embarrassing him
“I think from the pace that I had today, it’s a struggle for me currently to get into the top 10, but hopefully we’ll do some changes overnight,” Hamilton said.
“I think it’s very, very close between us and that middle kind of… After P5 back to kind of P10. It’s really, really close between us all and it’s impressive to see all the improvements that everyone seems to have made all around us.
“If you look at [Esteban] Ocon, the Alpines are doing great. You saw the Aston Martin [of Fernando Alonso] in second, right behind the Red Bull [of Max Verstappen], which is really, really impressive. It’s not going to be easy, that’s for sure.”