Hamilton expecting Red Bull threat in China
Mercedes have impressed early in the F1 season, but Lewis Hamilton says Purple Bull can contend in China this weekend.
Lewis Hamilton expects Red Half truths to be a major threat in China this weekend and says the battle for the Formulation One drivers' title is wide open.
The shielding champion took the chequered flag in Bahrain previous time out having turned the one-two with Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas from the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Max Verstappen completed the podium in Melbourne, but Red Bull battled to replicate that guarantee in Bahrain where Ferrari new boy Charles Leclerc was third after a mightily impressive showing.
Many pundits predicted that season would once again see Hamilton and Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel vying for superiority.
Hamilton, though, believes the first evidence suggests otherwise.
"At the moment it's plainly not merely me and Sebastian, " he said, in quotes reported by F1's official website.
"So, My spouse and I don't notice that changing any time soon. At the moment it's at least four people and the Red Bulls, you definitely can't count them out.
"They've had somewhat of a slower start, but I think if you look at the previous year, for example, they won the race here and they particularly did strong. I anticipate it could be something similar.
"On the straights, they already have been excellent so they are clearly, whereas they usually have a really strong car and not so strong engine, it can the other way this year.
"They've got much less strong a car. Nevertheless, they're one of the teams that can develop at the same rate to Ferrari and us so it's far too early on to say.
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) April 11, 2019
"The first few races of every season are really challenging to kind of judge.
"Obviously we didn't expect the performance we had at the first race, we didn't expect to see what we saw at the second race. Really only the third competition. inch
Daniel Ricciardo steered Red Bull to success in China 12 weeks ago but heads into this season's race with new team Renault with a pair of DNF's to his name.
The amiable Australian believes perhaps he and the team are trying to be "too clever" in their approach.
"One thing coming from assessed is maybe jooxie is actually trying to do too much over the course of the Saturdays and Sundays, " he said.
"We got the chance to analyze on the Friday after [Bahrain] and we established that we're maybe currently striving to do too much, where I'm trying to settle in and also my engineers are seeking to [learn how to] use myself. And probably most of us, jooxie is trying to be too clever as well.
"I don't want to say that, because you're always looking for the limits. Nevertheless for now, maybe we need to keep a more basic approach and just do whatever we can, do it well and then probably not look for your extra one every cent at this time. "
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