APRIL 11, 2019

Hamilton - Ferrari difficult to judge

Ferrari's up and down performances so far this season makes it difficult to judge the relative pace between the Ferrari and the Mercedes, says Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton, Bahrain GP 2019
© RV Press

By Dan Knutson in Shanghai

Ferrari's up and down performances so far this season makes it difficult to judge the relative pace between the Ferrari and the Mercedes, says Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari had the fastest car in preseason testing and again in Bahrain. In fact, Ferrari should have won the Bahrain Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc's car had an engine problem and Sebastian Vettel had a spin. That allowed and Mercedes to win.

But the question is, can Mercedes beat Ferrari fair and square, or does Mercedes need to rely on luck?

"I don't really know at the moment," Hamilton said at press briefing in the Shanghai paddock. "The first few races of every season are really difficult to kind of judge. Obviously, we didn't expect the performance we had at the first race (when we won in Australia) and we didn't expect to see what we saw at the second race in Bahrain.

"It's only the third race. It feels like it's been a long time already. It's difficult to know. Ferrari might come here with an upgrade and be even quicker than they were. We've got that long straight down the back which might serve them really well here. I'm not really sure. I hope that we don't have to rely on reliability, and I hope we have a much closer race. I think qualifying was okay in the last race, but in the race there was a big delta, and I hope this weekend is closer between us. This is a great track to have a real race, so the closer it is, the better."

Is this Ferrari's strongest challenge over last few years?

"Again it's difficult (to judge)," Hamilton replied. "You look at Melbourne and they weren't anywhere. But in the last race yes. Then again in last race they started off really strong. They won the first race, they won the second race, so you can't say they were stronger this year than last year. They've obviously got a great package, as they did last year. You could say a stronger package than they had last year. I don't think we've got a worse package. I think we've got a really good package as well, but they've definitely stepped up this year."