© Finn Pomeroy for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says “this year everyone’s a lot more grounded, more of the approach that perhaps we won’t be the fastest out of the gate”.
At Mercedes’ 2023 car launch, everybody in the team has been very careful when talking about their expectations on how the W14 will perform.
This led to speculation that Mercedes might already knows they won’t be able to fight at the top immediately.
Lewis Hamilton says the team is just careful about overpromising.
“The conversations we had last year, definitely I was bullish because they [the team] were bullish,” the Briton said.
“They had big upgrades coming, and I was like, right, we’re going to hit hard, but obviously, it was a shock to all of us.
“This year everyone’s a lot more grounded, more of the approach that perhaps we won’t be the fastest out of the gate. But we have the potential to be close.
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“Hopefully, we will be closer and hopefully, we will have the potential to close the gap early on in the season.”
While Lewis acknowledges there are no guarantees that the team will be competitive from the get-go, he is sure that even if they got it wrong, they will be able to improve and fight back as the season progresses.
“I hope when we get in [the car], it has the characteristics that we’ve asked for. But if not, then we’ll find a way.
“I think the job of the engineers and the designers is to come up with solutions. And so we’re prepared for what if.
“The difficult thing is don’t have a crystal ball. So you never know what is up ahead.
“But all you can do is prepare yourself and be present, and just work diligently towards solving whatever issue it is,” Hamilton concluded.
