Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ failure to out-qualify either Ferrari in Bahrain shows speculation about the team’s so-called « party mode » engine setting has been overblown.
Hamilton claimed pole at the Melbourne opener by 0.6s, a lap Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo likened to Mercedes giving the rest of the paddock the middle finger and throwing a pie in everyone’s face. It seemed to indicate Mercedes had lost none of the one-lap advantage it has held throughout the V6 turbo era.
However, Hamilton and Mercedes have repeatedly played down the suggestion it has a hugely advantageous engine mode reserved for the final stages of Q3. Coming to Bahrain, the second race of the year, Hamilton stressed his belief that Ferrari and Mercedes’ engines are now equal in terms of performance.
After qualifying fourth — which will become ninth on the grid once he serves a penalty for a gearbox change in his car — behind Valtteri Bottas and an all-Ferrari front row, he repeated that viewpoint.
« I guess it ultimately proves everyone who said we had a ‘party mode’ in the last race wrong, » Hamilton told Channel 4 after the session. « Ferrari have done a great job this weekend, they’ve got the pace and it’s been a difficult weekend for me overall in general. I hope tomorrow I can turn it upside down. »
When asked where the pace has gone since Melbourne, he said: « I think that was a really good lap from me and whilst I tried to get the same again here it’s not something you can always do.
« I think we come to a hotter circuit and often the gap closes a little bit because the Ferrari’s maybe have an upgrade, their engine mode is easily as good as ours. As you could see this weekend on the straights they are just as quick if not quicker. When you get to a hot circuit it’s really difficult to keep the temperatures low in the tyres and that’s something they’ve always been good at. »
Despite dropping down the order, Hamilton will go into the race knowing he will be on an alternate strategy to his rivals at the front of the grid. While both Ferraris, Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo will start on the super-soft tyre, Hamilton will start on the more durable soft tyre after using the yellow-striped compound to advance from Q2 to Q3. That means he will be able to extend his opening stint on a tyre Mercedes has looked much more comfortable on all weekend.
http://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/23065884/lewis-hamilton-ferrari-lock-proves-mercedes-does-not-party-mode
