- Mercedes
Red Bull just as quick in corners - Hamilton
Laurence Edmondson at Sepang March 31, 2014 « Magnussen and Bianchi get penalty points | Gap to Mercedes will be bigger in Bahrain - Red Bull »
Lewis Hamilton is convinced Red Bull is as quick as Mercedes in corners but is just lacking power on the straights.
Hamilton won the Malaysian Grand Prix with relative ease at the weekend, beating team-mate Nico Rosberg by 17 seconds and Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull by nearly 25 seconds. But despite the second dominant display in as many races, Hamilton thinks Mercedes advantage lies with engine performance and that it will be whittled down as the season progresses.
"I think it's far too early to rule out anyone [for the championship]," he said. "Sebastian was massively quick today and was applying pressure to Nico. Looking at their pace, their car is just as quick as ours through the corners and just a little bit slower on the straights.
"I have no doubts at all that Renault are going to fix that and when they do you are going to see a big race between us and the Bulls. They still have a fantastic car, I've looked at the GPS and they are the same speed as us through all the corners. Also, Ferrari are not too far off as well, I think. I think it's going to hot up at some point during the year."
Hamilton said Mercedes still has plenty of room for improvement this year.
"I'm going to keep pushing my team to develop the car. There are plenty of places we can improve on and I'm sure everyone else is doing the same thing. The car feels fantastic this weekend and I feel like we got every last bit from it."
Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1
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Laurence Edmondson is deputy editor of ESPNF1 Laurence Edmondson grew up on a Sunday afternoon diet of Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell and first stepped in the paddock as a Bridgestone competition finalist in 2005. He worked for ITV-F1 after graduating from university and has been ESPNF1's deputy editor since 2010
