The illusion lasted for one round of free practice. Lewis Hamilton concluded the first two free practice sessions of the Australian Grand Prix with the awareness of having to deal with the same problems faced in the first two outings of the season.
In the morning session, when it was 3 in the morning in Italy, the 7-time world champion managed to insert his Mercedes W14 between the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
However, over the course of the afternoon, things returned to the status quo that we were able to appreciate in Sakhir and Jeddah. Mercedes in trouble, with Hamilton not liking the changes made to his W14.
This will force the Brackley team to work in the evening to try to find other solutions and patch up a very complex situation. Waiting for the new W14 won’t be enough for the multi-champion team.
“Our morning was good, the afternoon was not so good. The feeling, if I’m being honest, is very similar to what we had in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia,” said Lewis after FP2.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images
“During the morning I felt a little better, but then we made some changes and they didn’t work. We’ll try to review everything tonight. Then, of course, the rain stopped everything. Free Practice 2 wasn’t a great session” .
“Traffic is always a problem here, but it was more so in Free Practice 1. Everyone had problems and everyone went very slowly, even along the line, but let’s hope that this doesn’t happen again and that there aren’t riders in front when it counts.” “.
Although in Free Practice 1 he was able to meet again among the Red Bulls, therefore a glimmer of higher competitiveness than what we have seen so far, Hamilton has made things clear. Mercedes has no hope of battling with the RB19s. His pace will allow her to compete for the same positions in which she managed to finish the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
“We won’t be able to compete with the Red Bulls. We’ll just have to try to get as high as we can. I think we’ll have the pace to fight for fifth position, as happened last race.”
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