Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton believes that his team will eventually find a way to tackle a rule introduced by FIA that is designed to “peg us back”.
The 7-time world champion was not overly enthusiastic after Max Verstappen took pole position during qualifying ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday.
All eyes will be on Hamilton this season as the British driver looks to add another world championship that will etch his name as the most successful driver in the history of the sport.
He said that it is no secret that the change in aerodynamic regulations have been aimed at Mercedes. However, he believes the engineers and technical staff will soon find a way around it.
“I mean it’s no secret that the changes, of course, they’ve been done to peg us back,” Hamilton said.
“We had the changes, of course, last year – to our engine – to do the same thing.
“But that’s okay. 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’ll do.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas, who finished in third position in qualifying, spoke of his interest in aerodynamics, claiming to be somewhat of a geek in this domain.
“I like aero stuff. I’m a bit of a geek, in some ways. I like aerodynamics, I’m really interested, but I don’t know the facts.”
There was some encouragement for the team and Hamilton admitted that he was pleasantly surprised by the improvement the car has shown in pace over the past couple of weeks.
“We’ve worked very hard over the last week to try and understand the package that we have,” he said.
“We made some steps forward, but we couldn’t compete with that last lap Max did today, but P2 puts us in a position to cause Red Bull trouble tomorrow.
“Max did a great lap and nearly 0.4 seconds is a big gap so we have some work to do.
“We pushed, but I couldn’t get any more out of the car. Still, it was exciting and I am immensely proud of everyone.”
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