Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Bahrain International Circuit, 2021

Hamilton excited by “quite impressive” pace of three rival teams in testing

2021 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton was pleased to see several of Mercedes’ rivals setting strong lap times during pre-season testing.

The seven-times world champion said three teams had particularly impressed him with their pace so far.

“Without doubt, it’s quite impressive to see the speed of some of the other teams,” said Hamilton.

“I think Red Bull are looking particularly strong. And it’s great to see McLaren also looking strong, also Renault [Alpine]. So I’m excited because that means more fun.”

Mercedes have not had a smooth start to testing. They lost some time with a gearbox problem on the opening day and both drivers have reported similar concerns over the car’s handling. Hamilton is confident they will be able to address their problems.

“I don’t waste time worrying, that deters you from finding the solutions,” he said. “We’re just working hard and focussing on getting through the short amount of testing we have and trying to be as efficient as possible, as we can.

“But I think it’s better when it doesn’t go smoothly. It’s better that it doesn’t go smooth now and goes smooth once we get into the racing scene. So this is the perfect time for us to find the issues and have the problems. And so I welcome that.

“I think everyone’s just keeping their heads down. No-one’s particularly fazed by it. We’re a multi-championship-winning team and we know how to pull together and keep our head down and focus on our job.”

Hamilton will take over from Valtteri Bottas in the W12 for the final four hours of pre-season testing this afternoon. “After this I’m going to sit with my engineers and we’re going to discuss where we’re going to start,” he said during today’s FIA press conference at lunch time.

“Naturally I’ve seen Valtteri’s running today and last night, slightly different conditions when the wind died down. I think track conditions have improved since the storm.”

Fastest times by each team over whole test so far

1. Red Bull – 1’30.187
2. Mercedes – 1’30.289 (+0.102s)
3. AlphaTauri – 1’30.413 (+0.226s)
4. Aston Martin – 1’30.460 (+0.273s)
5. Ferrari – 1’30.486 (+0.299s)
6. McLaren – 1’30.586 (+0.399s)
7. Alfa Romeo – 1’30.760 (+0.573s)
8. Alpine – 1’31.146 (+0.959s)
9. Williams – 1’31.672 (+1.485s)
10. Haas – 1’32.053 (+1.866s)

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83 comments on “Hamilton excited by “quite impressive” pace of three rival teams in testing”

  1. And interestingly three of those teams have a superb driver or even driver pair.

    Not optimistic yet that the WDC will be a real fight, but the WCC will not be a walk in the park for Mercedes.

    1. Things seem to indicate that Perez is getting on top of the RB better than Gasly and Albon, but it’s still yet to be proven in anger.

      Assuming Perez is performing close to his best in the RB, then I’d say:

      Verstappen + Perez > Hamilton + Bottas
      In the race, with the opposite being true in qualifying.

      If true, it’ll be interesting how that’ll pan out.

      1. I’m confused. Are you saying that you think the RB will be better than the Merc in race pace?

        1. @banbrorace I think he’s saying Hamilton and Bottas are better drivers in qualifying, while the Red Bull boys are better in races.

        2. @banbrorace
          ??
          ColdFly was talking about driver pairings. I was talking about the relative strengths of the RB and Merc driver pairings (imo).
          I wasn’t referencing the cars at all.

          1. Ah! I get you and agree. The McLaren pair could also be a handful as I think both, are better than Bottas who is now simply too bushwhacked after his 4 seasons of beatings at the hands of Hamilton

            Could be interesting times

            Then again, we could all be moaning about Mercedes been the top 2 for the first six races!!

          2. Driver pairing is better at RBR. And if Mercedes still suck in dirty air Merc #2 will struggle. Offcorse this could all be wishful thinking if Mercedes is again 4-6 tenths faster than #2 team.

          3. F1oSaurus (@)
            14th March 2021, 13:40

            @jureo How so? Hamilton would beat Verstappen over a full season and Bottas would destroy Perez.

          4. OMG @f1osaurus is off again where their hilarious denigrating of Perez

          5. F1oSaurus (@)
            14th March 2021, 19:50

            @banbrorace Lol. If you feel that reality is “denigrating” yes.

      2. No doubt the RBR driver line up is stronger than Merc’s.

        1/ RBR
        2/ Ferrari
        3/ McLaren
        4/ Mercedes

        1. Tell me Dean F what colour are the flying pigs you are looking at? :)))

          1. Bottom line for me is if RBR are now within a tenth or two of Merc, VB is screwed. We just saw what a dominant car VB needed just to barely beat Max in the WDC. As usual 80% to 95% of it is the car, depending on the expert you ask, so we’ll only know when we know, but something tells me VB might get swallowed up this year, and not just by LH.

          2. I’d agree with Robbie on that one, I think Merc will come to rue not having Russell in the second car this year. Bottas has been ok while they haven’t had decent competition, but given how he crumbles against one competitor I can’t see him dealing any better with possibly 6 competitors. VB has had plenty of time to show his worthy of a WDC in the best car on the grid and always come up wanting, he just doesn’t seem to have the killer edge.

          3. Not convinced that Ferrari has a better combination than Mercedes
            RB – Yes
            McLaren – Just. Ricardo has always been consistently good and arguably the grids best overtaker. Norris is better than Bottas now for me

            I agree with those saying that it is Bottas, who will get swallowed up. This shows that the extra competition will benefit Hamilton. Let’s say that the cars are equal – then you’re still backing the 7 time champion and that leaves Bottas, probably 6th!! With all five below Lewis, for most races, ‘swapping’ positions

            Of course my above scenario has Lewis has the lone driver of his team – meaning that the others can gang up on him with strategy, i.e. like Mercedes did to Verstappen last year, but even so I’m not convinced that Hamilton needs help from his teammate anyway

            Still not convinced that the Merc is anything but significantly better than the others – but we will see!!

        2. Seeing that LH has more world championships, wins, pole positions that all the drivers in places 1 to 3 combined, it’s hard to believe Mercedes has the 4th best driver lineup.

          1. What we argue here is…

            Total point earning potential RBR pair adjusted for car performance is better than Mercedes.

            Now i would not bet against Lewis ever, but the totality of their pair is slowed by Bottas.

            And if their car underperforms they will be smack in midfield where they will be exposed.

            Offcorse Perez might prove to be just as far from Verstappen as others.

            We shall see, but Perez has proven many times he has the right stuff to eak out podiums from cars that did not deserve it.

          2. F1oSaurus (@)
            14th March 2021, 19:54

            @jureo Hamilton is better than Verstappen over a full season and Bottas would destroy Perez. How would the RB pairing in any sense be better than Mercs?

            Yeah I guess all we can see at the end of this is how much Perez (who was barely better than Stroll) gets destroyed by Verstappen. At least Bottas is good enough to stay reasonably close to arguable the GOAT.

          3. I really disagree about the driver pairing: hamilton better than verstappen is arguable until they get the same car, and bottas would destroy perez makes me laugh, he has no aggressiveness, perez is a much better overtaker than him, hence I have no doubt red bull has a better driver pairing than mercedes, dean F was talking about driver pairings, not the cars, and indeed mclaren and ferrari are good candidates too to have better driver pairings than merc, considering leclerc and ricciardo especially, while their 2nd drivers are better than bottas.

          4. Let me give you a couple of Lewis Hamilton quotes…….

            “I’m surrounded by light and everything is beautiful”…..to Nigel Mansell in a Sky Sports F1 interview after one of his WDC wins.

            “Honestly, I feel like giving up on everything. Shut down completely. Why bother……….etc etc etc”……..this, to the whole world on social media in a post that was then quickly removed…..perhaps in the hope no-one would notice. At this point in October 2019 he’s just come 3rd in the Japanese GP. He hasn’t had a pole in 6 races and has only won one race in the last 5.

            Point is, the idea that Hamilton is psychologically robust at all times doesn’t add up. He’s only strong when he’s winning and has no competition.

          5. @nosferatubites

            “Point is, the idea that Hamilton is psychologically robust at all times doesn’t add up. He’s only strong when he’s winning and has no competition”

            Do you mean like the 2008, 2017 & 2018 seasons?

            What about 2010 & 2012? He was voted best driver on this forum in 2010 and got just as much praise for 2011

            And I haven’t even mentioned the first half of 2019, when Ferrari had their suspect pace – but Hamilton still was on top of them

            Can you explain your comment further

          6. Sorry to be picky @banbrorace, but Hamilton did not get just as much praise for 2011. While he has had some very good seasons, that was not one of them.
            Button easily outscored him and Hamilton had multiple crashes with most of them being his fault.
            It just was not a praiseworthy season.

          7. The Bottas effect..

        3. @banbrorace Yeah it is really an outlandish statemen… that Perez who done far worst vs a slow qualifier in Button than Bottas ever did vs Hamilton(a world class qualifier) or the fact Perez went life and death with Ocon who is not all that means Perez is much stromger than Bottas lol. When Lance Stroll can get podiums and get a pole position just maybe Perez drove a good car. Because unless you did not know Stroll was not even better than Sirotkin.

          1. @juan-fanger

            Sorry. I mistyped. I meant to say 2012

            Totally agree. Easily his worst season, by a long long way

  2. Having three teams been competitive with Mercedes, will result in them cancelling each other out and Merc winning by a higher margin – unless of course those teams have actually got a car as good

    And it certainly helps Hamilton. Psychologically, he loves a good fight – the reason he lost in 2016 was basically his approach to the start of that season showed that he was bored with it been a one team show!!

    We’ll see. For the first two-thirds, 2018 was actually a good fight and if say Alonso and Riccardo can get somewhere near to Hamilton, with Max as well, this could be better

    1. Correction: psychologically he loves a good fight as long as he’s driving the best car, otherwise he’s prone to make quite a lot of mistakes, as proven by his later years in McLaren…

      1. I trust this is a wind-up

        You mean 2010, when he got the driver of the year award on this site? The time, when he managed to be get to the last race, still having a chance of the title – despite having a misbehaving McLaren

        2012, was arguably more impressive

        And he wasn’t as good then as he is now. 2017/18 and the 2019 (until Ferrari got caught with their hand in the speed till!!) seasons show just what he does when the competition give him problems – rises above it

        1. It seems quite vogue at present to bash on Lewis. Alot of his fans have given up defending him because it dooesn’t need to be done anymore. Let em crack on I say. Meanwhile…Lewis becomes the greatest F1 driver of all time. No argument needed, no ifs, no buts, it’s there for all to see. This clown thinks Merc have the 4th best driver line up? You dont need to argue with that nonsense. 🇬🇧👍

          1. Well, if we’re all honest, and at least 3 other teams are on par with Mercedes, we all know from history what the outcome will be.

            Hamilton will finish no higher than 4th in the WDC. Just like he did for a full half decade before getting into the most dominant cars in F1 history starting in 2014.

            You can laugh/cry all you like, but it’s true. He finished no higher than 4th in the WDC for 5 years when his main rivals had cars equal or better than his. And what’s more, even though the Red Bull was dominant in those years, Hamilton didn’t even manage to come 3rd in the WDC, let alone runner up.

            But you all just keep pretending that Hamilton just all of a sudden turned into the greatest thing to ever get into an F1 cockpit in 2014 after half a decade of 4th or 5th in the WDC. Just happened like magic. We’ll just forget the fact that he had absolutely zero competition from his main rivals, if that makes you feel better.

          2. @nick101 you can cry all you want, Hamilton is the most successful driver in F1 history and the stats don’t lie. Verstappen might never win the championship, until he does he’s just hype like many other fast drivers before him.

          3. Nick, great, finally someone with some common sense!

            Everyone else is just like “this driver sucks”, then driver gets a dominant car “this driver is a monster”, see vettel, see hamilton.

          4. @nick101
            if we go by your statistics, ham is still the best of the best :)
            when ham had pretty bad car, he still finished in top 5, can you say the same about Alonso? Vettel? Ver? Ros? Button? Hak? MSC? No one from current era to finish like him! Only Ayrton Senna as i remember in the past 30 years?…

            Now go back to crying :)

          5. @nick101

            More WUMmery!!

            2008 – The McLaren is so far behind the Ferrari for pace, at least in the first few races, that the team try a quirky 3 stop strategy for Hamilton at Turkey. Just to try something new. Granted that wet / cool season helped them enormously as the Ferrari was nearly always better in the heat. Mind you considering how poor Hamilton is – it’s amazing that he can drive in the wet

            2017/18 – The Ferrari was the better car. Put another way if Hamilton, Alonso, Riccardo or Verstappen of last season, was in it – they’d have won the drivers championship

            So that’s at least 3 titles (we haven’t even mentioned 2019 – when Ferrari had more pace for the first half or the season) where he won titles when his rival has better or similar cars

          6. @mysticus

            …when ham had pretty bad car, he still finished in top 5, can you say the same about Alonso? Vettel? Ver? Ros? Button? Hak? MSC?…

            Ummm…clearly you didn’t watch the 2012 season when Alonso took what many believe to be the most uncompetitive car ever in an F1 title fight to the last race of the season and only missed the title by 3 points.

          7. @nick101
            “Ummm…clearly you didn’t watch the 2012 season when Alonso took what many believe to be the most uncompetitive car ever in an F1 title fight to the last race of the season and only missed the title by 3 points.”

            I just go by your statistics… you can cry all you want about uncompetitive car argument… even at that argument, ham still beat everyone in the overall results, and obviously your expectations… :)

            go maybe dig up ww2 f1 statistics, you may feel better :)

      2. Agreed. Post race interviews are a clear indicator of his vulnerability when things don’t go his way. He seems to mumble and be unwilling or even unable to give an answer with any detail. A short monotone answer followed by “That’s all I’ve got to say about it”. When he’s winning, which has been a lot, he’s as happy as a 5 year old on Xmas morning.

        1. Absolute selective tosh

          Hamilton has been like you describe plenty of times – but so have all the drivers who expect to win and don’t

          Hamilton has also been very humble when beaten, even bright and breezy. Here he is after his Merc, broke down after 2 laps of the 2014 Australian race…

          “There’s a massive positive. We won the race, so for the team it’s a strong position to be in.”

          Miserable little so and so!! Eh!!

          The problem with been a WUM, is that there always facts to make you look a bit silly

        2. @nosferatubites

          I’ll bite to your comment.

          Hamilton is clearly someone practicing mindfulness. It does not benefit you to dwell on things outside your control so if you made a mistake or got a penalty then there is no point worrying about it after a race. Everything Hamilton focuses on is stuff he can change which he is always talking about working hard with the team to improve things and himself. If he makes a mistake he’ll usually accept it but he’ll not focus on it other than to note it for himself to try and stop it occurring in future.

          When you watch Hamilton after a particularly poor race or session he will focus on moving forward and admit that the result was disappointing and he’s not happy but they’ll find a way to get better. He’s simply accepting the reality and his emotions and not looking to get swamped in the negativity. He’s not avoiding in detail out of spite or pettyness, he just knows focusing on it will not help himself or his team so it’s better to just not focus on negative points. Obviously for the media they want a juicy quote so it’s not good for them but why should Hamilton care about what they think, it’s his job to deliver titles which he has done.

    2. @banbrorace Good point about how the cars are relative to each other. Interesting to point out Hamilton (and everyone else) didn’t mention Ferrari. Too little to make a judgment about AM.

      It will all depend on mercedes true pace, how close Redbull are and if the other are close enough. But as mentioned, depending on circuit, they might challenge the car closest on pace up front and it might cost more to RBR than to Mercedes. Always difficult to judge after testing and better to wait for actual racing.

  3. Imagine falling for the Mercedes unterhund spiel in 2021. LOL

  4. When Merc starts to talk up their opponents, you just know they will disappear at the horizon in the first race.

    1. LOL!!

      It did seem incredibly easy for Bottas to get yesterday’s best time. Yes, the weather was better – but there was still some errors

      1. Well…. Some days later reality kicks in….

    2. Ofcourse they will, but for now we believe and hope we are getting a proper season. All this illusion will be gone after Lewis takes his first two consecutive wins..but for now the sun is still shining

  5. Pedro Andrade
    14th March 2021, 13:03

    The sandbags are heavy this year.

    1. Not 2.6s heavy, though.

    2. Well, they caused a sandstorm in bahrain! They were pretty heavy indeed!

  6. Something i’ve heard thrown around a bit is the belief that the aero changes to the rear end of the floor for this year may have swung the balance towards cars that run a high rake concept.

    1. @gt-racer Interesting you’re saying that because my observation of each team’s car presentation was that they are all fairly high-rake ala RBR.

      1. Except fo the team they all are trying to catch..

    2. @gt-racer
      Thanks a lot for the insight info ! Very interesting indeed.

  7. Without doubt, it’s quite impressive to see the speed of some of the other teams,” said Hamilton.

    “I think Red Bull are looking particularly strong. And it’s great to see McLaren also looking strong, also Renault [Alpine]. So I’m excited because that means more fun.

    A cat playing with mice?

    1. I came to say this

    2. Indeed Tom and Jerry come to mind… Oh wait :)

  8. Red Bull and possibly even McLaren are clearly faster than Merc. They’ve got this covered.

    1. @jaymenon10 Do they? I don’t think anything is clear other than that RBR/AT with their Honda pus, and Mac have put in a ton of useful laps for data garnering, but I would be really really surprised if a customer of Mercedes, namely Mac, and let’s throw in there AM, would ‘have covered’ the actual factory works team. And LH throws Alpine in there too, but that will have to have been a massive leap if they are suddenly really competitive at the top both pu and chassis wise, in spite of them being a factory works team.

      1. @robbie .. remember how Ferrari had the fastest car in 17, 18 and 19? This is kinda like that.

        1. @jaymenon10 You mean the seasons when Ferrari didn’t have it covered, even when they were ‘faster’ on occasion?

    2. Gud 1 jay. Hahahaha! Gud 1. But i tthink the sand bags are filled with lead.

  9. He wouldn’t be excited if they were a real threat, so right there tells me Mercedes is on top again. But then talking up the competition is typical of him and indeed from everybody at Mercedes.

    1. Still fighting the good fight I see Balue. Crack on. 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

    2. True. Whenever he’s had close competition he doesn’t like it at all and constantly whines therefore expect Merc dominance again this year

      1. This is a good point: he was in good terms with rosberg till he became his team mate, and if you play the “he’s still in good terms with bottas” card, unfortunately bottas proved beyond reasonable doubt he’s not capable of challenging a number 1 driver (and I mean performance wise, not cause of favouritism).

        1. @esploratore
          How sour are you? Ham was a good mate of Ros, until Ros started crashing on purpose and parking car intentionally to make a point… Only after Ros started playing dirty games, Ham distanced himself from matey matey and moved to rival status, even after Ros barely won a wdc, he couldnt bare the pressure ham put on him, and he called it quits… HAM-ROS was the best matched team mates and management didnt manage it all too well…

    3. @balue

      Sounds like a real legend of his sport talking then. Djokovic, Federer and Nadal, do this trash talking all the time.

      Rafa has the ‘I’m not worthy’ chat routine going so well, I half expect a ‘LOL’ emoji to pop above his head whenever he speaks

      Worryingly confident these pesky legends are. If only they’d stop winning!!

  10. Mark in Florida
    14th March 2021, 19:16

    Mercedes is trying to make everyone sleep on them again. Every year it’s the same thing, oh we’re not as fast this year as we would like to be. Everyone else is looking strong. We’re worried about Ferrari or Red Bull or McLaren, fill in the blank etc. They say the same stuff constantly and then come race day they are putting the power down and nobody is even close. This year Merc for the constructer championship and Hamilton for the drivers. Next year repeat ad nauseam.

    1. It’s very reminiscent of, I think it was 2019 (might have been 2018)

      It amazes me just how excited everyone gets. Hamilton sounds about as worried as he was after his opening race in Australia 2014!!

      Note, not the likes Brundle though. Wise chap that he is

  11. This is just the standard PR any driver would say, it literally means nothing, just like the testing times this week.

    1. Hear hear

  12. MB (@muralibhats)
    14th March 2021, 23:43

    Means WDC & WCC 2nd place will be close

  13. Mercedes are playing everyone.

    Remember when they showed up at a first test with an underwhelming car that looked a little difficult, before rocking up at the second test with a totally different one that was about a second a lap quicker?

    There’s no way, whatsoever, Mercedes of all teams, would basically stop developing last years car mid season to focus on this, then show up with something that underdone and unbalanced. It’s impossible. Short of them going on holiday at the factory.

    What we are seeing is the 2020 car with a 2021 spec floor and a handful of front end 2021 bits. They are seeing all their data correlation syncs up with the downforce loss of the new regs. Which is very telling in just how nervous the rear of it is. It looks like last years car just with 15% downforce lopped off the back.

    Throw into that the fact they also have not spent any development tokens, are the only team not to have a filming day for a shakedown and are having theirs after the test, where every other team has now shown something of their hand and any innovations Merc may have missed, and i think we can see where all this is going. The car on filming day will look nothing like the official test one.

    They’ve shown nothing idea wise, have the entire field to cherry pick ideas from and almost free reign with their tokens unspent to pick what ideas they want to implement and by the time they do show something, no other team will be able to react in time for the first few races.

    1. I kind of agree. Mercedes are notorious for sand bagging in pre season tests.. and they love talking up competition before obliterating the field in race 1.

      However, this has been Mercedes’ weakest pre season test as far as I can remember. they just haven’t been able to put in the laps like they always do.. and that will hurt them slightly when arriving at race 1. As you mentioned, they started working on their 2021 car quite early on… so that means they will show up will some fixes and new bits for race 1. I still expect them to be fighting for pole.. and both drivers will qualify in the top 4 with ease, but I can’t help but think Red Bull being on top of it’s game could make it interesting for the first few races.

      Mercedes will still win this season with ease.. but maybe they will have competition at a handful of opening races. As you mentioned, they’ve kept the tokens for later, which means they’ll be an unstoppable force a little later on in the season, as compared to others who’ve shown their hand already.

      1. @todfodt
        Mercedes – The team opted not to divulge where it spent tokens at the launch of the W12, with technical director James Allison admitting that it was purely to prevent teams from having more time to copy any new designs the team will run in 2021. “We have spent our tokens, but we won’t reveal how we used them just yet. That’ll become clear in good time.”

    2. @mrcento, do you have a reference for Mercedes having not used their development tokens yet? All I have read is that Mercedes did use them, they just haven’t said what they used them for. I was under the impression that the only team that hasn’t used their tokens is Haas.

      Remember when they showed up at a first test with an underwhelming car that looked a little difficult, before rocking up at the second test with a totally different one that was about a second a lap quicker?

      Yes. I agree that they are planning the same thing this year, with their filming day arranged for after this first test. I’d be very, very surprised if they don’t turn up to that filming day without a very substantial upgrade. However, the difference between this time around and last time, is that whilst last time the car did seem slow and a bit of a handful, they did at least get massive mileage in the first test (way more than anyone else). This time, the car looks even more difficult and their mileage was the lowest of all teams.

      Sure, I expect that come race day in two weeks, their car will be better. But I think it’s not a “no brainer” that it will be the class of the field. I’ve got my fingers crossed that Red Bull can give them a proper run for their money, in the first few races at least!

    3. Great post. I hadn’t realised about the tokens

      And the fact is, Mercedes going slightly undercooked into the opening race or two has never phased them. Think 17-19′.

      Indeed, if F1 champions were based on their Australia performance, Lewis would have about two titles!!

      No. As usual the season, assuming it takes it’s normal path, will get going around Barcelona as usual

      1. Mercedes – The team opted not to divulge where it spent tokens at the launch of the W12, with technical director James Allison admitting that it was purely to prevent teams from having more time to copy any new designs the team will run in 2021. “We have spent our tokens, but we won’t reveal how we used them just yet. That’ll become clear in good time.”

  14. People actually believe this, people actually read this and believe Merc won’t win another one

  15. Love all of the above!
    However! Mercedes are 100% the best sandbaggers ever in F1!
    Yes LH & VB will both enjoy the other more competitive cars to race against.

  16. He is only excited and impressed as long as he is winning expect the complete opposite when he starts to lose to someone other than a crippled wingman

  17. Barry Bens (@barryfromdownunder)
    15th March 2021, 8:30

    Meanwhile all the trashy F1 platform are, once again, screaming ‘MERCEDES IN TROUBLE, RED BULL IS GONNA WIN’.
    Really makes it easy to see which outlets never been to a race in their lives and don’t know anything that goes on in/around the paddock and those who do. Much appriciated RaceFans for leaving the hyping/unhyping to the drivers and not jump on the clickbait bandwagon.

    On a sidenote, I wouldn’t mind a deep-dive from Dieter on psychology-part of things. Like talking to those in charge of cars that saw others appear at the wintertests and were going like: ‘awh man, why didnt we come up with this’.

  18. Pretty sure he ain’t that excited, especially remembering his attitude and driving when he didn’t have the best machinery. There will be no trace of the calm and composed Lewis we’re seeing. Anyways, I don’t expect anything surprising when we get to the first quali, i.e. we’ll have to watch a lot of the same we have been watching the past 7 years. I’m more interested to know how good the McLaren is and how meh the Ferrari upgrades are.

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