Hamilton in the same boat: ‘We are miles off, a different category’

After finishing in P9, Lewis Hamilton was not happy with his car. The Briton lacked comfort in the W15 because of the its rear, and is not satisfied how the car handles high speed corners. The seven-time world champion still hopes with enough work, it can still be turned around this season.

"I mean the car is good in the low speed and not so bad in the medium, but in the high speed, we are miles off. It was like I was in a different category when I was going through the high speed between the other guys," Hamilton stated to Sky Sports after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

"It's frustrating for sure to be three years in a row in the same, almost the same position. It's tough, but we'll get our heads down and we'll keep working our way and  we can go back to the factory and work as hard as we can. We're definitely going to make some big changes," the Briton underlined that in the limited time he has left at Mercedes, they will try to turn it around.

He added: "We haven't made big enough changes perhaps. You look at the three teams ahead of us. They still have different concepts of where we are in some areas, so we've got some performance to add, that's for sure."

On the different strategy

Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris decided not to complete under the Safety Car period, betting on that something else would happen later on.

"I think it was worth trying something different, split the cars and try different strategies. Ultimately that's always the goal, to do something a little bit different, particularly when we're in a position we're in. I was fighting as hard as I could to go along and hope for a safety car or something, but I was just unfortunate that it didn’t come."