Motorsport

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

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.

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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

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