Hamilton: Mercedes has a 'lot of work to do' to close gap to F1's frontrunners

Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes has “a lot of work to do” to reduce its performance deficit to Formula 1’s leading teams, believing it is “still far off” Ferrari and Red Bull.

Following a shock Q1 exit during Saturday’s qualifying session in Saudi Arabia, Hamilton was forced to battle his way from 15th on the grid.

The seven-time world champion made solid progress having started on the hard compound tyre, running as high as sixth, but lost an opportunity to change tyres under a virtual safety car when the pitlane was closed due to Daniel Ricciardo and Fernando Alonso both stopping on track.

A frustrated Hamilton had to wait for racing to resume before he could pit for fresher rubber, dropping him to 12th place before recovering to 10th by the chequered flag.

After making his worst start to a season in 13 years, Hamilton identified the areas he felt Mercedes were lacking in to fight for greater honours.

“Right now we are not fighting for the top step, we are still far off the guys who are ahead and we’ve got a lot of work to do. It feels like a long way away,” Hamilton said, as quoted by Motorsport.com.

“We need more grip and we need more power.

“The end result was not great but the race was going really well, I felt relatively well on the hard tyre. I was keeping up with George and I think I put in some decent times and pace considering how old the hard tyres were and then the strategy at the end.

“I don’t know if it was strategy or the virtual safety car, we lost out so much so I think we will keep working hard and keep fighting because that’s all we can do.”

Hamilton believed Mercedes suffered with drag more than its rivals in Jeddah, after being unable to catch Kevin Magnussen’s Haas in the latter stages.

“We are