Lewis Hamilton has set his targets on catching Oracle Red Bull Racing after Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team scored a double podium at the Spanish Grand Prix over a week ago.
Hamilton was extremely pleased with the progress that Mercedes made in Spain, with the upgraded and completely new-look W14 on track for just the second time. Ongoing challenges with the ‘zeropod’ concept throughout last season and the start of this season resulted in a series of upgrades being implemented for the Silver Arrows at the Monaco Grand Prix. However, the true impact of these upgrades could only be judged while racing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Monaco being an outlier on the calendar.
The weekend brought success for Mercedes, as Hamilton secured second place behind Max Verstappen of Red Bull, with teammate Russell following closely behind. As a result, the Brackley-based team surpassed Aston Martin Armaco F1 Team to claim second position in the Constructors’ standings, and Hamilton has set his sights on catching Red Bull and continuing the team’s upward trajectory.
“Definitely – as long as I have been racing, if you are quick [in Spain], you should be quick elsewhere. Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 when asked if Mercedes now had a good platform to make progress.
“But the way these cars work, they have a bit of a narrow working window, so there will be tracks where it’s not so great, maybe, but I am hoping that’s not the case.
“We have gone into second in the Constructors’ championship and I think we have the strongest team, particularly the drivers – George and I are punching out great results weekend in and weekend out.
“Now we just need to pick up the performance a little but more, which I know everyone is working hard to do and hopefully, we can catch these Red Bulls at some stage.”
