Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes have mastered Formula 1’s new power unit regulations the same way they did last time – by starting work earlier than their rivals.
Mercedes dominated the seasons after F1’s last change in power unit regulations 12 years ago. Hamilton, who drove for them at the time, won six out of seven drivers’ championship titles between 2014 and 2020.
Hamilton, who moved to Ferrari at the start of last season, said Mercedes have stolen a march on the competition by starting work earlier on their design for the new power unit regulations.
“We’re losing, I think on the straights, [and] it’s a lot of time to be losing,” he said, “So we have a lot of work to do.
“We really have to push so hard back in Maranello to improve on power. It was something that I think we were conscious of last year, we thought that Mercedes started earlier than us or the rest, which they did last time as well.
“So they’ve done a fantastic job and we’ve got to step up, we’ve got to push to be able to close that gap.”
He believes Ferrari’s car is otherwise a match for Mercedes’. “The car feels great,” he said. “I think we can compete with him through corners. But when you’re down on power, it’s just the way it is.”
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Hamilton qualified fourth on the grid for the sprint race in Shanghai, behind the two Mercedes and Lando Norris’s Mercedes-powered McLaren.
“I’m really pleased with the session,” he said. “My team did a really great job. My engineers did a fantastic job to turn the car around because P1 was a tricky session with that spin. And the car generally felt great.”
Ferrari brought their novel new rear wing design to Shanghai and ran it in practice on both cars but chose not to use it for the sprint race. Hamilton said “I don’t really know why we went back on it.”
“We rushed it to get it here and it was not supposed to be on the cars until I think it was like race four or five or something like that. So they did a great job to rush it here.
“We only had two of them and it may be a little bit premature, so we took it off. The car was still great and we’ll work to try and bring it back when it’s ready.”
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2026 Chinese Grand Prix
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- Mercedes made early start to new power unit project ‘like last time’ – Hamilton
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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 – when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring journalist, Keith began running the site full-time in 2010, achieving a long-held ambition to dedicate his full attention to his passion for motor racing. View all posts by Keith Collantine