Realistic: Lewis Hamilton knows the Baku street circuit could pose more problems for Mercedes
(Picture: Getty Images)Lewis Hamilton has again warned that things could get worse for his Mercedes team before they get better.
Mercedes looked to have rectified many issues with their porpoising car at last month’s Spanish Grand Prix before they suffered a troubled weekend at Monaco.
Hamilton was eighth in Monaco and complained the bumpiness was the worst he had experienced in the seven races to date this season.
Baku, home to this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix, is another street circuit like Monaco, and the seven-time world champion warned it may prove another weekend of struggle for the defending constructors’ champions.
“I’m hoping it’s not as bumpy as Monaco, but we’ll find out when we get out there,” said Hamilton. “When you talk about the car’s strengths, I don’t know which ones we can align to here.
“We’re stronger on a smoother circuit. This is a bumpier circuit, so it’s not necessarily great for the characteristics of our car but it might be smoother, it might be okay.”
Baku looks set to be another battle between Red Bull and Ferrari, but Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell said he was confident Mercedes could compete for race wins this season.
“Barcelona was effectively a completely new car for us,” said Russell. “We’ve done two races with this iteration of the car. Monaco we took little or no learning from but we think we can now build from this foundation.
“There will be a few races before we see us fighting with the Ferraris and Red Bulls.
“There’s room to improve. It’s mainly the aero side of things, making sure we don’t go into porpoising issues. But we don’t know what Red Bull and Ferrari have in their pockets.”
