Lewis Hamilton was delighted to snatch an unexpected third-place finish in the barmy final laps of Sunday’s Bahrain Grand Prix - but warned of tougher days ahead for Mercedes.
The issues faced by reigning constructors’ champions Mercs in the build-up to the 2022 Formula One season have been well-documented, and were borne into reality with a tough weekend for Hamilton and new teammate George Russell.
Stuck back in fifth and sixth, the pair were elevated late on when both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez in the Red Bulls suffered DNFs due to a suspected fuel issue.
“We did struggle in the race, but George did a great job and to get third and fourth is pretty remarkable given the problems we had,” he told Sky Sports.
“The thing is with our car, we have a car that bounces a lot - everywhere. It’s not just in a straight line. We have very poor rear end in all the low-speed and medium-speed corners.
“The only place we’re relatively quite good is in the high [speed corners], and then we’re really slow on the straights. I don’t know if it’s drag or if it’s power, but we can’t keep up with the others so we do have a lot of work.
“You just slide a lot on the rear and the tyres just get hotter and hotter and degrade, so that’s where we’ve got a lot of work to try and catch up on.”
