LEW: I’VE GOT WORK TO DO
Hamilton is off the pace
LEWIS HAMILTON saw his bid to make a swift return to winning ways take a battering in Bahrain.
The reigning world champion was forced to settle for second in the season opener in Australia as a shrewd strategy call from Ferrari handed Sebastian Vettel victory.
And it was the Italian team who set the pace in practice yesterday, with Kimi Raikkonen pipping Vettel to the fastest time in the second session under floodlights.
As for Hamilton, the Mercedes man was over half a second down on Raikkonen’s benchmark in fourth spot.
And he was even eclipsed by team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff calmed fears for Hamilton’s hopes of snatching pole position today, claiming Ferrari had been running in a “high-power mode”.
But ominously for Hamilton, Ferrari’s pace looked more than a match for their Mercedes rivals, while Red Bull are expected to be in the mix come tomorrow’s race.
Hamilton said: “It looks very close between all the teams and we have got some work to do to try to see if we can eke something out to be ahead of the others.”
The only sour note for Ferrari was the sight of Raikkonen pulling off the track towards the end of the session with a loose front-right wheel, although the Finn escaped a grid penalty.
Hamilton, whose current deal expires at the end of the season, revealed earlier this week he is stalling on putting pen to paper with Mercedes until details of the future plans of F1 are finalised.
The sport’s owners, Liberty Media, outlined their plans yesterday with most teams viewing the measures optimistically.
But Ferrari have warned in the past they will walk away if they are unhappy with the direction F1 takes, while Wolff admitted further discussions would be needed before a deal is struck.
The stand-out changes Liberty hope to introduce from 2021 include making the engines cheaper, simpler and louder.
The American company are also eager to place more emphasis on driver skill and want to alter the aerodynamics of cars to increase overtaking opportunities.
Plus, Liberty want to ensure smaller outfits are rewarded for good performances with a bigger slice of prize money.
And they plan to limit teams to a total spend of just over £100m annually, although that would not include driver salaries.
However, Wolff described that figure as “much too low”.