Lewis Hamilton claims the pace of Ferrari in Bahrain backs up the comments he and Mercedes made before the start of the season.
Before the opening weekend in Australia, the Briton put a margin of around half a second between the two teams in the Scuderia’s favour based on the performance in pre-season testing.
In Melbourne though, the situation played out very differently leading most to claim Mercedes were sandbagging and playing mind games with their comments.
“When we went to the first race we truly believed [we were behind],” Hamilton was quoted by Motorsport Week.
“I was presented where everyone’s positions were [after testing] and from our estimates and understanding of potential fuel loads and power modes and all these things we were behind from three to five tenths.
“And we got to the first race and they [Ferrari] didn’t have any pace all of a sudden.
“We came out incredibly surprised and really, really happy to have had such a great result as it had been a hard winter for the team.”
In Bahrain, however, that pre-season prediction proved more accurate as Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel wrapped up the front row with the Monegasque in a race of his own pace-wise on the Sunday.
That was, of course, until his engine problem which allowed Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas to take second.
“We are happy [with the win], but we are also conscious and aware of how lucky we were to come away with a 1-2,” the world champion continued.
“We all worked so hard through the weekend, as we do every weekend, but we underperformed.
“Naturally you have lucky weekends. We have to go away and take the points and be grateful for them as you never know when at some stage it’s flipped and we have an unfortunate weekend.
“[But] we can’t be jumping around in excitement because we know, and I know, that Charles did the job and should have won.”
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Agreeing with that sentiment was Formula 1’s motorsport director Ross Brawn, who thinks the weekend in the desert will have certainly got those at Mercedes worried.
“If you record two one-two finishes in the first two races, you should be in seventh heaven, believing you have dealt a severe blow to your rivals’ hopes,” he commented post-race.
“And yet, on Sunday, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff openly admitted that while it had somewhat unexpectedly finished ahead of the rest in Melbourne, practically unchallenged, it was a very different story in Bahrain.
“If it hadn’t have been for Leclerc’s loss of power, Hamilton would have had no chance of attacking the Ferrari, nor would Bottas have finished second, a result that means he keeps his Championship lead.
“Mercedes are aware of the real situation and they have to fight back against what is clearly a very competitive Ferrari this year.
“If you’ve won everything since 2014 there’s a risk of resting on one’s laurels but Bahrain will have been a wake-up call that they will not be ignoring as they hold their de-briefs at home this week.”
