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      Lewis Hamilton vents frustration at Mercedes & reveals he ‘told team about car issues LAST YEAR’ after Bahrain disaster

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      LEWIS HAMILTON has vented his frustration at Mercedes and says that he told them about the car’s speed issues last season.The seven-time Formula One world champion started the new season in disappointing fashion last weekend.
      Lewis Hamilton says he told Mercedes about the car’s problems last seasonCredit: Getty
      The 38-year-old could only finish sixth in Bahrain as rival Max Verstappen romped to victory for Red Bull.
      Mercedes already had concerns about their W14 design, which is an evolved version of their “no-sidepod” one from last season which caused numerous issues as the team missed out on an eighth-consecutive constructors’ championships. 
      Mercedes boss Toto Wolff wants his development team to reproduce a “radical” new design following the “worst weekend of racing” at the Sakhir Circuit.
      However, motorsport legend Hamilton says they would not be having these issues if the team had listened to him previously.
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      The Brit told BBC: “Last year, I told them the issues that are with the car.
      “Like, I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs, I know what a car doesn’t need.
      “And I think it’s really about accountability, it’s about owning up and saying ‘yeah, you know what, we didn’t listen to you, it’s not where it needs to be and we’ve got to work’.
      “We’ve got to look into the balance through the corners, look at all the weak points and just huddle up as a team, that’s what we do.
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      “We’re still multi world champions you know, it’s just they haven’t got it right this time, they didn’t get it right last year, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right moving forwards.”
      Hamilton went winless for the first time in his F1 career last season while team-mate George Russell scored one victory for the team in Brazil.
      But despite the prospect of another year of struggle, Wolff does not expect that to prevent Hamilton from agreeing new terms.
      Hamilton, 38, has a contract until the end of the year and both Jenson Button and Damon Hill have questioned whether he will re-sign now he’s not winning.
      Hamilton said he IS committed to the team and Wolff has also dismissed the idea he will walk away now he has a battle on his hands. More

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      George Russell’s throwaway comment hints at big problem for Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after horror F1 season opener

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      A THROWAWAY comment from George Russell has suggested Mercedes could end up with a bigger problem than their car. Team principal Toto Wolff has already indicated the team could scrap their car design after just one race.
      George Russell has suggested Mercedes could soon have a bigger issue than the carCredit: PA
      The young Brit finished P7 in BahrainCredit: PA
      Team-mate Lewis Hamilton finished P5Credit: PA
      Russell and Lewis Hamilton finished P7 and P5 respectively at the season’s opening race in Bahrain.
      The Silver Arrows struggled to keep pace with runaway leaders Red Bull, as well as Ferrari and surprise team Aston Martin.
      Both Russell and Hamilton look set to be on a problem-solving streak for the first few races at the very least, despite the latter trying to have a positive outlook on the season.
      However, should they begin to genuinely compete for race victories again, Russell has indicated he will not be backing down from the challenge.
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      After qualifying, the young Brit told Channel 4: “It’s meaningless. We’re here to win. I want to beat everybody.”
      The 25-year-old has one race victory to his name after winning last year’s Brazil Grand Prix in Sao Paolo.
      Meanwhile, 38-year-old Hamilton has 103 wins to his name, which have allowed him to yield a joint-record seven world titles.
      This has not stopped Russell from indicating he will get his elbows out, even hopping on the team radio during the race to ask whether his team-mate was struggling.
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      He said: “Is Lewis managing or is he slow? Because I feel like I have a bit more pace.”
      While the pair are amicable at the moment, Hamilton and Mercedes have a history of driver partnerships being put under intense strain.
      The Brit came wheel-to-wheel with Nico Rosberg on more than one occasion when the pair shared the seats at Mercedes from 2013 to 2016.
      Wolff will be keen to avoid such a situation with his two current drivers.
      Hamilton has also been feisty with former McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso.
      The pair fell out in 2007 as then-rookie Hamilton challenged the two-time champ throughout the season – with the bickering ultimately allowing Kimi Raikkonen to snatch the title.

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      Lewis Hamilton urges Mercedes to ‘push massively’ to fix worrying problem to close gap on Max Verstappen ‘ASAP’

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      LEWIS HAMILTON has urged Mercedes to fix their car urgently after watching rival Max Verstappen sprint into the distance in Bahrain. The Dutchman won the opening race of the season at a canter with his teammate Sergio Perez finishing a comfortable second.
      Mercedes have returned to their black design of 2020 and 2021 but can’t find the same performance of those yearsCredit: Getty
      The result underlined Red Bull’s dominance with even the impressive Fernando Alonso finishing 38 seconds behind in third.
      As for fifth-placed Hamilton, he was a mammoth 51 seconds off Verstappen, who he was once neck-and-neck with when the pair scrapped over the 2021 title.
      But now the seven times world champion does not have a competitive car he’s urging Mercedes’ engineers to fix their problems as soon as possible.
      The 38-year-old said: “I am generally happy with the race, it was much better with the qualifying and I am happy with my performance.
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      “There’s not much more I could have done. Set the car up differently maybe? But overall just lacking performance.
      “The team did a great job with the pit stops, just unfortunately, the car is just not there at the moment, we are lacking downforce and we have just got to work really hard to try and add that ASAP.
      “Anything that is in the wind tunnel, we need it tomorrow. We need to push massively to close that gap.”
      Hamilton’s downbeat assessment was echoed by his teammate George Russell, who shared an ominous prediction on how dominant he believed Red Bull were.
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      Meanwhile, team principle Toto Wolff gave an honest assessment of just how far behind his Mercedes team are.
      He said: “It was one of the worst days in racing. It is really not good at all and we are lacking pace left, right and centre.
      “Red Bull are just on a different planet. That is what hurts because they are so far ahead. It reminds me of our best years where we just put a second on everyone else.
      “That is the benchmark and we need to come back and we can absolutely do that.”
      The Austrian, 51, had previously suggested during the weekend that Mercedes might have to scrap their car entirely and go back to the drawing board. More

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      Lewis Hamilton explains what is motivating him to stay at Mercedes after another torrid F1 weekend dominated by Red Bull

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      LEWIS HAMILTON has explained what is motivating him to stay with Mercedes despite another weekend of struggles. The season’s opening race in Bahrain saw Max Verstappen cruise to victory while Red Bull completed a front-row lockout thanks to Sergio Perez coming in second.
      Lewis Hamilton is choosing to remain positive despite early strugglesCredit: Splash
      He could only manage a P5 finish in BahrainCredit: Getty
      With Mercedes openly questioning their car designCredit: PA
      Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell has joined fans in already anointing Verstappen as the season’s champion.
      And while the Flying Dutchman’s display has laid down a big marker for the rest of the grid, Hamilton is choosing to remain optimistic.
      Asked whether he was concerned about the team’s progress, the Brit replied: “Concerned wouldn’t be the word.
      “There is nothing I can say, I don’t want to say too much. We’ve just got to keep working.
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      “We know we are not where we need to be, and we know that this isn’t the right car. It is a difficult one.
      “But I’ve just got to try and stay positive, keep my head up and keep pushing the guys. Keep trying to be a positive light for them and get the best points I can.”
      Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff described Sunday as one of his “worst days in racing”.
      Hamilton and Russell finished P5 and P7 respectively, unable to get near the pace of Red Bull and also finding Aston Martin to be too much to handle.
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      This was particularly the case with Fernando Alonso, who clinched his 99th career podium after completing overtakes on Hamilton and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz to take P3.
      Hamilton also dismissed any suggestions the team were closer to the podium than they expected, adding the tyre degradation the team suffered last year had repeated itself.
      He added: “We were miles away. There was a Ferrari that would’ve been ahead of him [third-placed Alonso], so we would’ve really been sixth. So a podium was nowhere near.
      “It generally felt the same as last year [the car]. When we did the strategy in the morning I told the guys it wasn’t going to go as far as they said it was going to go, and it didn’t.
      “We have just got a lot of work to do. We have just got to add downforce to the car, we’re lacking a lot of downforce.
      “That is really where the time will come. As soon as we put more load on the rear and the front we’ll pick up that pace.

      Complete F1 2023 race calendar – details on every Grand Prix this year
      Following a dismal qualifying session on Saturday, Wolff also admitted Mercedes may need to scrap their car design entirely.
      He said: “I don’t think this package is going to be competitive.
      “We gave it our best over the winter and now we need to regroup, sit down with the engineers — there are no holy cows — and decide what development direction we want to pursue in order to win races.
      “The moment comes when the stopwatch showed we are not good enough.”
      However, despite Verstappen’s early dominance, a trend dating back to 2017 suggests Hamilton and Co are still in with a very good chance of landing the title.
      This is because the winner of the opening race has NOT gone on to win the championship at the end of the season in each of the last six years.
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      Furthermore, the chart-topper of Free Practice Two (FP2) on the curtain raiser has gone on to win the championship in every season since 2017.
      This would suggest Alonso is in line to land his third world title and his first since 2006. More

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      Toto Wolff claims Bahrain GP ‘one of my worst days in racing’ after Lewis Hamilton finishes 50 SECONDS behind Verstappen

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      TOTO WOLFF labelled the Bahrain Grand Prix one of his “worst days of racing” after watching Max Verstappen blitz his way to victory.The Red Bull ace crossed the line a staggering 50 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton’s Merc – with team boss Wolff admitting he is “not bulls******g” when he says his team are THAT bad.
      Mercedes chief Toto Wolff admitted Red Bull were ‘on a different planet’Credit: Getty
      Lewis Hamilton came a distant 18th as Mercedes struggledCredit: PA
      Wolff had earlier confessed Merc will be forced to scrap this year’s car due to its poor performance after only ONE qualifying session.
      The staggering revelation comes after a winter of development and, despite initially feeling confident coming into the season, they are again trailing in Red Bull’s dust.
      He said: “One of the worst days in racing. Really not good at all, we were just lacking pace front, right and centre. Red Bull is just on a different planet.
      “I’m not bulls*****g myself and I’m not bulls*****g the media. I have always been transparent and honest.
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      “What I’m saying here is how I feel right now. I’m not overreacting; the gap is very big and in order to catch up we need to make big steps. Not conventional ones.
      “When you look at where we were at the end of last season, where it looked like we caught up a lot but, we have almost doubled, if not tripled, the gap to Red Bull.
      “For us, everything is bad and in the race you saw the consequences and we were going backwards.”
      Hamilton went winless for the first time in his F1 career last season while team-mate George Russell scored one victory for the team in Brazil.
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      But despite the prospect of another year of struggle, Wolff does not expect that to prevent Hamilton from agreeing new terms.
      Hamilton, 38, has a contract until the end of the year and both Jenson Button and Damon Hill have questioned whether he will re-sign now he’s not winning.
      Hamilton said he IS committed to the team and Wolff has also dismissed the idea he will walk away now he has a battle on his hands.
      Wolff added: “The drivers are fully aware. We’re speaking about it openly in the whole team. It is a matter of serious performance we need to find.
      “Lewis is an integral part of the team. You could hear on the radio he was picking the team up.
      “We are all sticking together and I don’t think that’s going to change just because we had another start that was really bad.
      “We have won eight constructors championships and six driver championships with him and that relationship holds.
      “It would be much too easy to lose a driver and throw in the towel but we have to dig deeper than we have ever done.” More

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      Russell predicts Red Bull have F1 title sewn up after ONE race and believes Verstappen’s car will win EVERY GP

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      GEORGE RUSSELL is in no doubt who will win this year’s F1 title.In fact, he thinks Max Verstappen’s Red Bull will win ALL 23-races such is the superiority of the Dutchman’s car.
      George Russell finished P7 in BahrainCredit: PA
      Russell has predicted Max Verstappen to win EVERY Grand Prix this seasonCredit: PA
      “Red Bull have got this championship sewn up,” said the Mercedes man after Verstappen won in Bahrain and he finished seventh.
      “I don’t think anyone will be fighting with them this year. They should win every single race this year, is my bet.
      “With the performance they’ve got. Their pace seemed weaker this weekend than it was in testing, but they’ve got it easy at the moment.
      “They can do what they like. They might not be on pole all the time because we know Ferrari are very competitive in qualifying, but when it comes to race pace they’re in a very strong position.”
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      Let’s take nothing away from Christian Horner’s team who, thanks to the pen of designer Adrian Newey, have an absolute rocketship of a car.
      It is an improvement on last year’s model – which the cynics are suggesting is remarkably like this year’s Aston Martin, which propelled Fernando Alonso to third-place at the Sakhir Circuit.
      But the reality for F1 fans tuning into this season’s opening race with such expectation is that it could turn into a long, hard watch.
      That could prove to be a problem for Formula One, who until last year at least had been treated to some pulsating battles to keep things interesting.
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      F1 does have a history of seeing a team dominate.
      Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes have dominated for spells in the modern era.
      However, the difference is now the sport is enjoying a booming spell of popularity and the question is whether this new generation of fans, converted by the Netflix series, will remain suitably entertained.
      If Verstappen is winning week after week by a considerable margin, and Ferrari and Aston Martin are alternating for third place, the novelty will soon wear off.
      Make no mistake, Red Bull’s advantage is huge.
      Not even a cost-cap penalty of a £7million fine and a reduction in wind tunnel testing has slowed them down.
      If anything, they are quicker by virtue of Mercedes’ dreadful design that has been produced after pigheadedly sticking with a failed concept, which has now been consigned to the bin.
      And while Ferrari looked to offer some hope they could put Red Bull under a bit of pressure, their old Achillies heel proved to be their weakness when Charles Leclerc pulled over with an engine issue and failed to finish the race.
      There were rare moments of excitement.
      Two-time world champion Alonso battled with Lewis Hamilton on lap 38 with the Spaniard getting past the Brit with an excellent piece of driving through turns nine and ten.
      In truth, Hamilton, who was fifth, was a sitting duck as he delivered his assessment after the opening race of the year.
      He said: “We’re miles away. There was a Ferrari that would’ve been ahead of Alonso so we would’ve really been sixth, the podium was nowhere near.
      “We’ve just got a lot of work to do, we’ve just got to add downforce to the car, we’re just lacking a lot of downforce.”
      Alonso then swooped past Carlos Sainz on lap 45, to take a place on the podium for the first time since the 2021 Qatar GP.
      Esteban Ocon provided some light relief with a shocking performance that at least made us laugh.
      He was penalised for being out of position on the startline.
      He then failed to serve the five-second time penalty correctly, triggering another sanction.
      And in making his pitstop, he was penalised for speeding in the pitlane before eventually retiring from the race.
      Other than that, it was all fairly routine for the rest, apart from McLaren who are in a crisis.
      Oscar Piastri was forced to retire on his debut GP with a gearbox problem and team-mate Lando Norris came last after stopping SIX TIMES.
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      The saving grace is the stat that since 2016, no driver who has won the first race of the season has then gone on to lift the title.
      That is likely to change this year.
      Lewis Hamilton finished the season opener in P5Credit: PA More

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      Max Verstappen strolls to Bahrain Grand Prix win and looks cert to retain title after ONE race as Alonso gets third

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      MAX VERSTAPPEN kicked off his F1 title defence with a routine win here in Bahrain.The Red Bull man cruised to victory ahead of his team-mate Sergio Perez, who was second, as the 2023 season got off to a familiar start.
      Max Verstappen carried on how he left off in 2022 as he cruised to victoryCredit: Getty
      Verstappen won by an almost 12 second gapCredit: Getty
      Fernando Alonso’s pace in the Aston Martin proved too much for Lewis HamiltonCredit: AP
      The podium was littered by familiar namesCredit: Getty
      Verstappen has now won five of the last six F1 racesCredit: PA
      Alonso enjoyed his time on the podiumCredit: PA
      Bahrain Grand Prix organisers made sure the spotlight was on the winner
      Red Bull looked supreme once again while Ferrari suffered reliability problems that forced Charles Leclerc to retire. And Mercedes were again off the pace.
      It had an all-too familiar feel as Lewis Hamilton was fifth – the only new element being an impressive performance from Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.
      Two-time world champion Alonso battled with Hamilton on lap 38 with the Spaniard getting past the Brit with an excellent piece of driving through turns nine and 10.
      Alonso then swooped past Carlos Sainz on lap 45, to take a place on the podium for the first time since the 2021 Qatar GP.
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      It was vintage from Alonso, who had looked impressive over the whole weekend while Stroll, who had broken his wrist only two weeks earlier, was sixth.
      The Aston form will pile the woe on Mercedes, as they were beaten by their customer team.
      Merc boss Toto Wolff bizarrely admitted the team had made a mistake for the second year running with the design of their racecar – a huge error that could have serious ramifications if Hamilton decided not to re-sign with the team.
      But while Mercedes were off the pace, Ferrari will be concerned by Leclerc’s engine failure that cost him a place on the podium.
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      The situation is even more bleak for McLaren. Oscar Piastri was forced to retire on his debut GP with a gearbox problem.
      After all the build up for the Australian he was told to pull into the pits after only 13 laps.
      Team-mate Lando Norris did not do much better. Despite finishing the race, he came home in last place after stopping SIX TIMES.
      It is a worrying start to the season for the Woking-based team, who had warned that they had failed to hit the targets they had set themselves over the winter.
      Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon had a shocker. He was penalised for being out of position on the startline.
      He then failed to serve the five-second time penalty correctly, triggering another sanction.
      And in making his pitstop, he was penalised for speeding in the pitlane before eventually retiring from the race.
      Charles Leclerc was forced to retire from the raceCredit: Getty

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      Lewis Hamilton drops huge hint when he will retire as Mercedes’ British star looks to win eighth world title

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      LEWIS HAMILTON has revealed he will NOT retire until he wins an eighth world title.The Mercedes star, 38, begins his 17th successive Formula 1 season on Sunday as the 2023 campaign gets underway in Bahrain.
      Lewis Hamilton wants to continue until he wins a record-breaking eighth titleCredit: Reuters

      And Hamilton’s team are continuing to play catch up to Max Verstappen’s Red Bull following a disappointing 2022.
      The Brit went the entire year without claiming a Grand Prix victory for the first time since his F1 debut way back in 2007.
      The underwhelming season came after a record-breaking eighth world title was dramatically snatched away from him in 2021 when Verstappen overtook him on the last lap of the final race.
      It means Hamilton remains locked together with Michael Schumacher on seven world championship triumphs.
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      And Mercedes’ struggles over the past 12 months have left many speculating whether the Stevenage-born racer will retire on seven wins.
      But Hamilton has now attempted to quash any talk of that being the case.
      He undertook a lie detector test for Sky Sports’ F1 coverage and was asked by presenter Simon Lazenby: “Are you going to keep going until you get your eighth title?”.
      To which he simply replied: “Yes”.
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      And the polygraph was unwavering following Hamilton’s response.
      It comes after Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff confidently insisted he will keep leading the team until Hamilton gets his historic eighth win.
      He said: “Even if I need to push him around to win the eighth. We’re going to do everything that’s needed.” More