Lewis Hamilton has warned Mercedes may have to wait until next year to catch Red Bull after a technical reshuffle.
2023 has seen another disappointing start to the Formula 1 season for the seven-time world champion, as the W14 car failed to capitalise on the promise from late last year.
Hamilton himself quickly voiced his unhappiness with this year’s Mercedes, claiming the team didn’t listen to feedback over the design.
Already, big changes to the car are being promised, potentially seeing a shift away from the ‘zeropod’ concept that has been unique to Mercedes.
And last week, following an internal review, it was confirmed that James Allison and Mike Elliott would swap roles within the Brackley-based team, seeing Allison return as Technical Director while Elliott becomes Chief Technical Officer.
That will no doubt be encouraging news for Hamilton, who has yet to sign a new contract at Mercedes beyond 2023, but the Briton doesn’t expect to challenge for wins any time soon…
“We have to make sure to implement changes,” he told Motorsport-Total.com.
“I just hope this task doesn’t prove too big. It will certainly take the rest of the year to possibly close the gap.
“It can take a long time to catch another car. I’m aware of that and the Red Bull is very likely to be developed further.”
But with significantly more wind tunnel time at their disposal and potentially a new concept coming, Hamilton hopes Mercedes has more room to improve than Red Bull.
“Some cars reach a performance plateau at some point,” he said. “When you get to a certain point, you just can’t go any further.
“It might be different at Red Bull. It’s a great team, so I’m sure they’ll continue to add downforce to the car.
“I hope that we will find something and that we are not far away from the others,” he added.
“We can develop a car quickly. We’ve proven that in the past. Hopefully, that’s the case here again when the vehicle’s potential opens up.”
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Mercedes boss Toto Wolff also reassured that development is continuing “at a fast pace” while confirming a stream of updates is expected in the coming months before the summer break.
“We understand the knowledge that we need to recover,” said the Austrian.
“We need to have a steeper development curve than Red Bull and fundamentally, we want to compete for race wins. They are setting the benchmark now.
“We trust in the process and in the people, and there will be setbacks. But if the trajectory is up, that’s where we want to be heading.”