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Lewis Hamilton fears that the gap between Mercedes and their rivals has widened because of their decision to stick so closely to the design of last year’s car.
After a terrible first day’s practice at the Bahrain International Circuit, the headline news was the speed of Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin and the evidence that Mercedes — who came third in the constructors’ standings last season, 244 points behind the dominant Red Bull — may be even less competitive than had been expected.
It was already established that Mercedes would require a few races to get their car into shape to start challenging the Red Bulls at the front of the grid. However, Hamilton’s damning assessment after two practice sessions was that they may not actually have caught up at all over the winter and that their problems may be down to the very “concept” of the car.
“There was progress through last year, but the gap wasn’t as big as it is now,” Hamilton, 38, said. “Do I believe we can close the gap at some stage? Yes. But I think it’s quite hard with the concept we have.”
The seven-times world champion, who finished a lowly sixth in last year’s drivers’ standings and failed to win a race during the season for the first time in his career, added: “We’ve got a lot to work on. We’ll continue to tweak bits here or there but it’s going to be milliseconds rather than closing the gap by a second. We look as if we are where we were last year, if not a little further behind. It’s certainly not where we wanted to be or where the team deserves to be.
“Everyone continues to work so hard but we’re just on the wrong track. Right now, we are a long way behind.”
Red Bull have picked up from where they left off, but the star of the show here was definitely Alonso. The evergreen Spaniard, 41, finished with the fastest lap time in the second practice session in the afternoon, ahead of Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez in the two Red Bulls, followed by Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari. Hamilton was eighth and George Russell even further back in 13th.
Alonso was fast in the earlier session too, when Pérez was the quickest. Alonso’s time managed to split the Red Bulls and push Verstappen down into third place. Aston Martin finished seventh in the constructors’ championship last season. The car had performed well in testing last week but this early show of form was better even than that display had suggested.
Alonso was modest about his high-performing Aston Martin. He called it “another step in the right direction” and said that “the car feels good but we need to wait and see”.
A more definitive test of whether Alonso and Aston Martin can really challenge the Red Bull dominance will come during qualifying under the lights this evening.
Red Bull are still expected to be the team to beat, with Ferrari and now Aston Martin challenging behind them. On this showing, however, Mercedes could find themselves a midfield team with a lot of work to do to emerge from the pack.
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