Lewis Hamilton is convinced that the change of rules around floor and diffuser dimensions is aimed at slowing down Mercedes, which has won all the championship titles in the last seven years.
The dimensions of the floor in front of the rear wheels are smaller this year to make teams lose some of the downforce, and it has been shown that cars using low-slope flooring like Mercedes and Aston Martin, which switched to the Mercedes concept last year, have lost more.
The Red Bull was one of the first to start the trend with a high rear end distance from the ground which creates a larger diffuser volume, but also brings more focus and a greater challenge of controlling turbulence than the rear wheels.
Hamilton says it’s no secret that changes for 2021 were introduced to stop Mercedes, but he says they like challenges.
“It’s no secret that changes have been made to peg us back,” said Hamilton, who qualified second behind Verstappen.
“We had changes to the engine last year [ban on using special engine modes in qualifying and in the race] that were introduced for the same reason.”
“But that’s okay. We love challenges and keep working hard the best we can. And we will do that.”
“Max drove a great lap, almost 0.4 seconds is a big gap so we have a lot of work to do. The car was good in Q1 and Q2, it took us until the last minute to find the right settings and the car seemed good.”
“But in the end I couldn’t find enough time, but it was still exciting.”
“We made some steps forward but we couldn’t compete with that last lap Max did. P2 puts us in a position to cause Red Bull trouble tomorrow..”
Verstappen, Hamilton and Bottas after 2021 Bahrain GP qualifying (Photo: Daimler)Bottas was also asked about the aerodynamic changes, but the Finn declined to comment on it but only praised Red Bull for the great work they did over the winter.
“Their power unit, chassis and aerodynamics are good, they did a good job over the winter and we need to be better,” Bottas said.
Verstappen added that the high rake concept, which Red Bull has been using since 2009, is their long-standing philosophy.
“It’s been our philosophy for a long time, I don’t think you can explain everything with just that, I think there are more factors.”
“We knew our weaknesses from last season and it’s not just about the slope of the floor. I think it’s about the engine too, Honda really worked hard to improve their engine and I think they did a great job.”
Toto Wolff admits that Mercedes has a big fight ahead of them if they want to win their eighth consecutive double title.
“We are very excited to have a real fight on our hands,” Wolff said.
“Six different teams in the top ten today and it’s clear that simply being “good” will not be good enough this year. But in the final year of these regulations you need to push the needle further to not only beat Red Bull but also some of the other teams. It’s just what the doctor ordered!”
