Lewis Hamilton reported to the media at the end of the first day of testing for the Grand Prix of Bahrain in 2023 that Mercedes had a long-run time that was one and a half seconds slower than Red Bull’s.

At the Grand Prix of Bahrain 2023 on Friday, Lewis Hamilton crossed the finish line in eighth place.

Lewis Hamilton completed the first day of testing for the Grand Prix of Bahrain 2023 in seventh place, trailing Max Verstappen by around half a second.

It is feasible to think of it as a qualifying race speed, but Hamilton contends that the speed he needs to win the main race (the long run) is 1.5 seconds faster than that. This is because the main race is longer. There is a chance that Red Bull Racing will be able to get ahead of Mercedes during the main race, which comprises of 57 laps, if this projection ends up being accurate:

During the test, we were aware that there was a minor gap (between Mercedes and the top), but the difference is very big today. “We have observed that we are being kept a great distance behind.” “We have observed that we are being kept a considerable distance behind.”

“I gave it my best attempt, but if we take a look at Red Bull, we can see that in the long-run races, they were 1 and a half seconds quicker than we were. Because of this, we need to keep putting in the effort,” he said.

To the best of my knowledge, we have maximized the potential of the vehicle that we are presently using. It’s feasible that we can improve this slightly in terms of the configuration, but the time savings won’t amount to more than a few milliseconds at most. To close such a vast deficit as one second, this alone is not adequate.

But, we are not going to give up trying. In the evening, we will conduct yet another study of the data, and in the morning, we will work toward achieving even higher levels of performance.

In addition to the ꜰᴀᴄᴛ that Aston Martin is (supposedly) performing well, Hamilton is ᴀɴxɪᴏᴜs about the ꜰᴀᴄᴛ that Mercedes is falling further and further behind (from P3 to P4):

According to my estimation, the Ferrari is the second-most powerful car in the entire globe (in terms of laptime). In spite of this, the Aston Martin is the second most powerful automobile when the measurements are taken over a significant amount of time.

“Throughout the course of the race, we were fairly competitive with Ferrari.” “In the great scheme of things, we sit somewhere between third and fourth.” During the race, “During the course of the race, we were fairly competitive with Ferrari.” The circumstance is essentially the same as it was this time last year, and if anything, we might even be a bit further behind.’

Although the seven-time world champion driver admitted how difficult it is, he insisted that Mercedes will continue to adopt the same car design philosophy that they have been using. In addition, he disproved the prevalent notion that Mercedes operated under an alternative strategy (philosophy):

I also overheard someone say that Mercedes already has a design ready to go for their Plan B scenario. There is not such a Plan B; all you have heard about it is simply tabloids.

The process of re-designing an automobile requires a large amount of both time and resources, and our company does not have either of those elements present. “We are currently living in an age of discovering methods to cut costs.

I have hope that Mercedes, the most successful racing team in the world, will aid me in narrowing the gap between us. As a result, we will continue to adhere to our current vehicle design philosophy in an endeavor to bring advancements to the automobile.

In a nutshell, the riders express their opinions in line with the data and the results that they have. Before deciding whether or not the information provided is accurate, let’s wait until the ranking results from tonight are ʀᴇᴠᴇᴀʟᴇᴅ.