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Lewis Hamilton takes subtle dig at Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari problem

Sanket Chaudhury
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Lewis Hamilton takes subtle dig at Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari problem

Lewis Hamilton takes subtle dig at Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc for Ferrari problem as the Italian team struggle to find their groove.

F1 is as much a game of cat and mouse as it is of high speed racing. Ever since Barcelona testing began, teams have been downplaying their own chances and praising the competition. Maybe some team falls for it (looking at you Haas) but pretty much everyone is a bit tired of Mercedes winning and then claiming they are overachieving in a slower car. They did this for most of last year and while that might have been true for a few circuits, but to hear them talk about the difference between pace you’d think they’re using a Go kart against the Ferrari.

Ferrari received rave reviews at the Barcelona testing and were supposed to be the firm favorites with Mercedes complaining about car being jumpy and difficult to control. But Melbourne turned up and Mercedes blew Ferrari out of the water. Ferrari seemed slower than the Red Bull and nowhere close to the Mercedes. However the flat out straights at Bahrain suited the Ferrari and Leclerc drove brilliantly to fall at the hands of software failure that ruined his race and Vettel was doing Vettel things.

But Chinese GP came around and once again Mercedes were out screaming about the Ferrari pace. Honest truth though is that Mercedes have got a car that is better with downforce, making them faster on the corners, especially the fast corners. Ferrari’s car isn’t good with downforce but that helps them on the straights where the downforce doesn’t hold them back. So if a track has a lot of straights with no fast corners, Ferrari is the faster car and if its got a lot of fast corners, Mercedes is the better car.  

But if you ask Mercedes and Hamilton they are still stuck in the same tale. After dominating the Chinese Grand Prix that saw a third Mercedes 1-2, Hamilton spoke to the press and claimed that Ferrari are the faster car and they haven’t unlocked the full potential and once they do they will dominate. Blah blah blah.  

“They’ve got a good car, the Ferraris, it just doesn’t look like they’re extracting their full potential on the weekends,” Hamilton said.

“And then the execution doesn’t look as faultless as they have shown in the past.

“We all have ups and downs, but that’s where we are really diligent in making sure our processes are as accurate as they can be.” he added.

F1 fans are getting tired of Hamilton and Mercedes parroting the same story over and over again. And its not like this solves any purpose. As a Ferrari fan it only irritates you to hear them talk all the time about Ferrari being better only to be disappointed every week. As a Mercedes fan you do not want your team to talk about their own performance than always be caught talking about Ferrari.

Irrespective of who is faster and who is not, and maybe Ferrari are faster and maybe they are yet to unlock the full potential, but why must Mercedes continue to insist on talking up Ferrari? F1 fans want rivalries and competition. This sly compliment/digs are getting tiresome real fast and need to end for the fans to actually look forward to the races than which car is faster and who has failed to “get the best of out their package.”

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