Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes need ‘rest of the year’ to catch Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton has conceded it may take Mercedes the entirety of the 2023 Formula One season to close the gap to frontrunners Red Bull, all but writing off his team’s chances of even competing for a win.

The seven-time champion was blunt in admitting how far off the pace his team are and, despite an expected change in the design of the Mercedes car, did not anticipate catching Red Bull.

Hamilton was speaking before this weekend’s Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, where another difficult weekend is likely after Mercedes struggled in the opening two rounds of the season in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The British driver managed only fifth in both meetings, which were won by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez respectively.

While Red Bull have brought a car that is an improved evolution of last year’s title-winning ride, Mercedes’ decision to stick with their design concept which was so problematic last year has proved to be a serious miscalculation. They remain behind Red Bull and Ferrari and have been overtaken by a resurgent Aston Martin, who have notably followed Red Bull’s design lead.

The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has already acknowledged that his team are to adapt their design philosophy immediately and are likely to attempt to mirror the strengths of the Red Bull, which is currently up to six-tenths of a second a lap quicker than Mercedes. However, there will be no quick route to achieve this nor will it be straightforward, as Hamilton confirmed in Melbourne.

“It is going to take us the rest of the year to potentially close that gap,” he said. “If you look at the Red Bull it is just going to continue to evolve most likely. Some cars do plateau in terms of performance. At some point it can’t just