Lewis Hamilton expressed worry at the pace of Ferrari in Canada and the engine advantage they hold.
The Mercedes could not answer to the straight-line speed of the Prancing Horse in Montreal, with Sebastian Vettel scoring pole and crossing the line first before the now infamous penalty.
And while the expectation is their pace was a one-off and Mercedes will again dominate in Paul Ricard, Hamilton doesn’t want his team to rest on their laurels.
“We’ve got work to do, we’ve seen how quick Ferrari were at the weekend, and they were kinda right there at the last race [in Monaco] as well,” he said in his post-race press conference.
“It will be interesting to see how it plays out, they’re quicker than us on the straights and they have another level of engine mode they can go to, particularly in qualifying but also the race.
“But at least we’ve got a good fight. They were so strong this weekend and a real formidable force.
“We were very, very fortunate to be in the battle with [Sebastian Vettel] as they genuinely could have had a 1-2 if they had a front row for example, but luckily I was able to stop it.”
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While obviously satisfied with the performance in Canada, Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto concedes this isn’t the start of a shift in the pecking order.
“It is very difficult to judge and forecast the performance but it [Montreal] is a circuit which is power sensitive and rear limited so not the same as Barcelona which is front limited. It is more similar to Bahrain rather than Barcelona,” he explained via GPFans.com.
“We knew coming [to Canada] we could be closer to Mercedes, how close, I don’t think we had any clue before coming.
“I think Friday performance related to them was difficult until the track improved through the weekend with more grip and we coped with that.
“The car is exactly the same as we had in Spain, no upgrades from then, so let’s say our weaknesses we have still on the car. It is as simple as that.
“We need to work, try to improve as there will be other races that are not like Canada so we need to keep fighting and challenging them.”
