Lewis Hamilton pinpoints two areas for Mercedes improvement after Saudi Arabian GP

Mercedes recorded fifth and tenth placed finishes in Saudi Arabia to continue a slow start to the season

Lewis Hamilton finished tenth at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix (Getty Images)

Lewis Hamilton has picked out a need for “more grip” and “more power” as areas of improvement for Mercedes after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The German team were again off-the-pace in Jeddah, with Hamilton fighting his way up to tenth after qualifying down the grid.

George Russell finished fifth but could not provide a realistic challenge to either Red Bull or Ferrari, who filled out the first four places.

An offseason overhaul of aerodynamic regulations has proved to be to Mercedes’ detriment, with ‘porpoising’ a persistent issue and Hamilton and Russell evidently short of pure pace down the straights.

Hamilton thinks that parts of the car’s performance were better in Saudi Arabia, but admits that there is a big gap to be closed.

“Right now, we’re not fighting for the top step,” Hamilton conceded. “We’re still far off the guys ahead. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

“We need more grip, we need more power. We didn’t have any porpoising, [but] we’re still really down on the speed trace.

“So I don’t know, it’s not just one fix, it’s several things. I don’t know how much drag we have compared to the others but it feels like a lot.”

After failing to finish the season-opening race in Bahrain, Max Verstappen squeezed out Charles Leclerc to secure his first victory as a Formula 1 world champion.

Verstappen and Hamilton’s duel defined the 2021 season but any repeat would hinge on significant, rapid improvement from Mercedes.

A weekend off before the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne may aid Toto Wolff’s team, but the underlying issues have proved difficult to solve.

Hamilton had utilised a different strategy to most drivers in Jeddah, but had his plans to pit during a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) period scuppered after a couple of cars got in to pit lane difficulty.

That meant the 37-year-old’s entry was delayed, and he could only take back two places to finish tenth after re-emerging.

“The end result is obviously not great,” Hamilton said. “The race was going, I think, relatively well on the on the hard tyre.

“I was keeping up with George and I think putting in some decent time considering how old the hard tyres were.

“But the strategy at the end, I don’t know if it was strategy or just with the VSC, we lost out so much.

“We’ll keep working hard and just keep fighting. It’s all we can do.”