Lewis Hamilton has led Mercedes this season, but the Silver Arrows face another difficult weekend.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes could face another difficult weekend after Fernando Alonso predicted that teams that struggled at the recent Japanese Grand Prix will struggle again in Qatar.
Both circuits have many similarities with Qatar featuring almost exclusively medium and fast corners. This is consistent with Suzuka’s design, suitable for cars capable of exceeding high speeds on the fastest racing tracks.
This will be bad news for Mercedes and Aston Martin, as these two teams were only fourth and fifth fastest when the Grand Prix started at Suzuka two weeks ago. Speaking ahead of the second Qatar Grand Prix, Alonso said:
“It seems a bit optimistic to think about the podium, but let’s see. It was going to be a stressful weekend for everyone, no one qualified 100% because we simply didn’t have the time.
“It was exciting, but looking back at Suzuka, there might be a weekend where we won’t have a performance like that. I think the new generation of cars have done well in high-speed corners, and the new thing is all the speed, so I think that will be good. The weekend sprint will add some spice!
If Alonso is correct in his prediction, it means bad news for Hamilton, who was extremely disappointed with Suzuka after extracting the maximum from the Mercedes package, only to get a P5. The Silver Arrows have recently fallen behind rivals Ferrari with Carlos Sainz’s win in Singapore combined with a stronger weekend Japanese GP result, leaving the Scuderia a combined 20 points behind Hamilton and Russell.
Speaking about the state of Mercedes after the trip to Suzuka, Hamilton told Sky Sports:
“[I’m] fighting with everything I have to move as high as possible and stay ahead of Ferrari, which has upgraded this week and is therefore exceptionally fast.”
“They’ve been faster in the last three races. It’s been a great fight. I’ve scored the most points for the team, I’m really trying to hold [second place] for the constructors’ title because I really know how important it is for everyone in the factory. “So you definitely have to give everything, but it’s difficult on weekends like this, especially when the car is so hard to go. It’s basically exactly the same as last year so it’s at the same level.” feel, the car feels exactly the same as last year, bouncing and sliding.”
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