Lewis Hamilton has dismissed Red Bull’s mind games after a contentious first race weekend of racing in Austria.
This year, the Milton Keynes-based outfit sees their best chance to dethrone Mercedes, after six straight double-championship wins, and began by throwing every trick in the book at them during the season opener.
First, Red Bull unsuccessfully protested Mercedes’ innovative DAS system on Friday but would see Hamilton a three-place grid drop on Sunday, after reviewing an initial decision not to penalise the Briton for failing to slow under yellow flags in qualifying.
Then, after Hamilton and Alex Albon collided during the race, team boss Christian Horner criticised the 35-year-old, suggesting he should change his approach.
But when asked on Thursday if this was all tactics to try and unsettle him, Lewis responded definitively.
“I can’t answer for them. If they don’t know me better by now, mind games don’t work. I guess they’ll eventually learn,” he said.
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While Red Bull is one threat for Hamilton to deal with, his most immediate comes from Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who has been quicker than the six-time world champion when its mattered so far in 2020.
“It’s only one race, and of course you get a positive feeling from starting a season like that, and you want to carry the positive momentum and keep the confidence you get from that,” the Finn said after claiming victory in Spielberg last week while Lewis was only fourth.
“So I think, that’s the plan for the season. The races will come pretty rapidly so being efficient in the learnings and how you work with the team is going to be the key.”
