Lewis Hamilton delivers another crushing verdict on Mercedes W14 car
Mercedes secured P2 in the Constructors' standings, but also their first winless season since 2011.
Lewis Hamilton has stated his belief that the W14 is not even a “race-winning car” left alone a title contender.
Mercedes have suffered a second straight year out of the title fight and all their focus is now on at least offering up some kind of competition to Red Bull in 2024.
The team has been working hard behind the scenes at Brackley to prepare the W15, which is desperately needed after Hamilton delivered his latest verdict of the Mercedes car.
Lewis Hamilton downbeat on breaking win drought
It was on this day in 2020 that Hamilton won his most recent world title but he has since gone almost two years without even a race victory.
With Red Bull still comfortably clear and the likes of McLaren and, on their day, Ferrari also ahead of the Silver Arrows, Hamilton is not confident of ending that drought anytime soon.
“It’s still not a world championship-winning car and I don’t even think it’s probably a race-winning car still,” he told Sky Sports.
“That’s what we’re going to have to work on for next year.
“But either way we’re going to be fighting to try and stay ahead of the Ferrari and the fact that we are competing for second in the constructors’ title is amazing given from where we started. So I’m really hopeful we can maintain that position.”
His team-mate George Russell was little more optimistic, suggesting this weekend’s race in Las Vegas was one of “opportunity.”
“It’s definitely going to be a bit of an unknown because these Pirelli tyres are challenging at the best of times. But they’re developed to operate in warm climates,” said Russell.
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“We always talk about the temperature of the tarmac and it normally operates between 30-60 degrees whereas estimates are probably between 10-15 degrees here.
“So twice as cold as the tyres are used to dealing with. So qualifying’s going to be difficult to get your temperature in [to them]. The race, the tyres are going to be graining.
“So it’s going to be a weekend of opportunity.
“But, who knows, maybe we go out there, the tyres are performing well and we see them the same order as we have done recently.”
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