Lewis Hamilton Was Shocked By Mercedes' Performance Deficit In Bahrain GP

Lewis Hamilton has apologized to his team for some of the comments he made following the Bahrain GP. Despite using the same gearbox and engine as Fernando Alonso's Aston Martin, Hamilton finished 5th and was overtaken by Alonso.

"In hindsight, I think looking back, it wasn't necessarily the best choice of words. Of course, there are times when you're not in agreement with certain team members, but what's important is that we continue to communicate and pull together," said the 38-year-old 7-time F1 world champion.

Hamilton was disappointed by the performance deficit, as he had hoped that Mercedes had solved the problems from the 2022 car. "The comments that I would hear is that we probably won't hit the ground straight away at the front but we should be there or thereabouts. So yeah, it was a bit of a shock when that wasn't obviously the case," Hamilton explained.

He believes that the performance gap to Red Bull is even higher than in 2022. This time, Mercedes not only has Red Bull and Ferrari in front, but also Aston Martin, which is a Mercedes customer for the engine and gearbox.