Lewis Hamilton and George Russell clear about fighting Max Verstappen at Australian GP

Mercedes have suffered another slow start to an F1 season with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell off the pace while Max Verstappen and Red Bull are flying once again

Lewis Hamilton feels Mercedes can improve in Melbourne this weekend – but fears Max Verstappen is already too far ahead to catch.

He believes Red Bull’s rivals have already clinched the title, even though only two of the 24 races have been held so far. Mercedes are once again lagging behind, despite being more optimistic about the potential of their W15 car. Ahead of this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, Hamilton once again praised his latest car. And the seven-time world champion will be hoping to do better than he did in Jeddah two weeks ago, where he finished ninth. “I really think we have a great car, it has a lot of potential, but we just didn’t optimize the settings and ended up making a mistake,” he told reporters. he said. In his first two races we were not satisfied with our performance. “But I think there’s a lot more potential that we haven’t fully tapped yet.” So the focus is there. We’re just trying to understand the car and hopefully this is the weekend where we take a step forward. There’s a lot of work going on and everyone’s heads are down.

“This weekend is positive. We had two not-so-good races, but we still have a long way to go. There are certainly some significant improvements made to this car. Behind the wheel, it feels like a much better car, more like a racing car, but it can lean to either side and has a narrow range of operation for this type of car. “I believe the team still has a winning mentality and I’m sure they will solve all our problems. We will definitely get there.” But the fact that Max has 58 points means he only has 8 points after 2 races…

“We have to realize that the season is very long and things can change, but it will be very difficult to catch them. Their cars are thrown out on the track, they drive, and we do our best to get that performance where it needs to go.

Teammate George Russell shared the view that Verstappen was too far ahead, but cited last season as an example of how quickly things can change. “If we can get the Red Bulls out of this situation, we’re in for a really exciting battle,” he said. But ultimately, we’re not here to fight for P2, we want to fight to win.

“I know I have a mountain to climb, but things go by so quickly in this sport. If someone had told us after the first six races last year that they would finish fifth in the championship, we wouldn’t have believed them if we had seen Aston Martin on the podium. So I think this shows how quickly things can change.