Lewis Hamilton claims it is “no secret” that the floor changes in Formula 1 for 2021 were aimed at hurting Mercedes.
After their dominance of last year, the reigning champions had to settle for second and third on the grid as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took a blistering pole for the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday.
It was a result which confirmed Mercedes has been hit the hardest by the revised floor and diffuser regulations for this season, with Hamilton’s best lap in qualifying over two seconds slower than his pole lap at the 2020 race just four months ago.
But while the main goal of the alterations was to reduce downforce and therefore loads on the tyres, Lewis believes it was just the latest attempt at slowing his team down.
“I mean, it’s no secret that the changes, of course, they have been done to peg us back,” he told the media on Saturday.
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“We had the changes last year to our engine modes to do the same thing, but that’s OK. We love a challenge and we don’t look down on these things. We just work hard to do the best we can, and that’s what we will do.”
Despite Hamilton’s unhappiness, the reality may actually be a little different.
It is true that Red Bull has been less impacted by the floor changes thanks to their high rake design, but Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also notes how the power units are now very close in performance.
“It’s hard to swallow, although we knew Red Bull would be strong,” the Austrian said of Verstappen’s nearly four-tenths advantage in qualifying. “We’re losing on the high speed [corners]. We can clearly see there’s a deficit.
“We’re also losing a little bit on the engine side in terms of derate. We are not yet in a happy place with our energy recovery, but it’s not one thing we point to where we can say this is the big gap.”
For their final year in F1, Honda introduced a new engine that was originally intended for 2022 which has clearly delivered a significant step in power.
“Honda has done a great job,” Wolff added. “You just have to say when they’ve done a really good job, full stop.
“They delivered the power unit which is extremely competitive – look at where AlphaTauri is [with Pierre Gasly starting fifth].
“We just have to take it as sportsmen, they left no stone unturned and no resource un-utilised to finish the job properly. It’s good motivation for us, and I’m happy for them.”