Lewis Hamilton admitted his Mercedes felt ‘average’ after failing to follow up practice promise in Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying.
Hamilton lines up seventh for Sunday’s race, a place behind teammate George Russell, with pole-sitter Max Verstappen over half a second ahead of the pair.
Earlier in the day, in third practice, Hamilton’s W14 showed some strong speed, with the seven-time champion fourth among the front-runners and hoping for the same in qualifying.
Speaking to the media after dropping down to seventh, Hamilton said: “I wasn’t really [disappointed] because I went in with an open mind.
“I woke up this morning thinking we were going to be a lot further behind so the fact that we’re even getting into Q3 is great.
“A lot of great work happened overnight and the car was feeling much, much more alive this morning and all of a sudden we were in a different place.
“When we got to qualifying the car didn’t feel alive, the car felt kind of average, so the direction I’m going with my setup we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
On Friday, Hamilton said Mercedes were on the ‘wrong track’ which many took as a reference to their ‘zero-sidepod’ aerodynamic design.
His team principal, Toto Wolff was asked if they’re still singing from the same hymn sheet over the W14 after qualifying, and said: “He’s absolutely in the same choir.
“We’re supercritical with ourselves and what we want to achieve, there’s no such thing as a holy car and we’re looking at everything with the concept, did we get it right and should we have acted earlier?
“We just need to get our act together, we’re gonna get his eighth [world title], compared to [Fernando] Alonso he has another four years in him as a minimum, so we just need to get it done.
“The gap is not ridiculous but it’s not where we want to be.”
Hamilton also offered some positivity, saying he’s sure Mercedes can catch up this season.
“Over a single lap, six tenths you can catch up,” he said.
“We were sixth tenths this time last year with all the bouncing and everything so it’s not an impossible mountain to climb so that’s a positive.
“We can definitely close that gap, we’ve just got to focus and push like never before.”
