Hamilton suggests McLaren's performance 'wake-up-call" to Mercedes
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According to Hamilton, others have "overtaken us and more needs to be done. "
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Lewis Hamilton during a press conference in Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, November 17, 2022. (AP)
Lewis Hamilton believes McLaren's performance at the British Grand Prix should serve as a "wake-up call" to Mercedes.
The seven-time champion and his teammate George Russell finished seventh and sixth, but were more than four-tenths of a second slower than pole-sitter Max Verstappen in his Red Bull.
The incumbent double world champion and series leader was two-tenths of a second faster than McLaren's Lando Norris and Australian Oscar Piastri, who finished second and third, respectively.
Hamilton stated that "It's not a blow," only a "Wake up call for us. Others have overtaken us and we need to do more," he said.
The eight-time British record winner expressed that he expected a difficult race for Mercedes, forecasting a struggle to beat the McLarens.
"Of course I'll try and be optimistic and we’ll do our best, but realistically, I'm not sure. We will find out. It was difficult to get past two Ferraris -- and then we've got two McLarens out there. It's going to be a tough race."
Hamilton also indicated that the heavily-updated McLaren's significant performance boost was due to the production of aerodynamic elements that were extremely comparable to the Red Bull vehicles.
"If you look at the car, it makes sense," he explained, adding that "I'm really happy for them. They've had such a bad run for so long so to be back up there is really, really great to see."
"If you just put it alongside a Red Bull, it looks very similar down the sides and it's working. It is great. We now have another team in the mix, which is what we want to see in this sport."
Russell stated that team data revealed a significant disparity for Mercedes between their predicted qualifying and race performances on Sunday.
He stated that Mercedes thought they would qualify 17th and 18th, but on lengthy runs during the subsequent free practice session, they came third and fourth in the race.
He did note that some improvements have been made since numbers suggest that they finished 17th and 18th in qualifying, as well as third and fourth in race trim in FP2, expressing that he felt "gutted to see that we were only half a tenth from P3."
"Well done to McLaren, They’ve come from nowhere and they're the big unknown for tomorrow… so let’s see."
