Hamilton finished 2.2 seconds behind Verstappen in the feature race last Sunday in Austin before being disqualified for an excessively worn plank.
After both the sprint race and the US Grand Prix, Hamilton felt that seeing the RB19 up close had been a learning experience and that he would “download” his thoughts onto his Mercedes team.
When asked in Mexico City on Thursday what he had learned, he gave further insights into the strengths of the dominant Red Bull car.
“I think the only area where we’re probably on par with them is low speed,” he said.
“Our car has generally been good at low speeds in recent years. But the higher the speed, the greater the distance between them. That’s why you see them so quickly in places like Suzuka.
“It was a good experience, it’s always a good experience to be behind them. Because you can see straight away where the car is stronger.
“They can get to electricity sooner than most of us. The car moves much less, rear tire wear is much, much easier to manage. I’ve been in this position before where I had a much more stable rear end.
Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, 1st place, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG, 2nd place, with his trophy
“It is much easier to keep tire temperatures lower and drive longer. They’ve simply done a better job in this area as they have a more stable platform that makes it much, much easier for Max to ride on.
“That’s why he doesn’t even sweat when you see him get out of the car! He generally doesn’t sweat.”
Hamilton believes that with an optimal strategy he could have beaten Verstappen at least on the road and won the US GP race.
“We were very close, I could almost taste it at the last moment,” he said. “I think if we had had the right strategy I would have been a lot closer to this win.
“But it doesn’t matter, otherwise we would have been thrown out. I can’t really remember how much I miss it. It’s been a few years.
“I enjoyed the process and the journey I took with my team to get the car back to where we need to be. Of course you’ll be a little closer at the end of the season if they stand still, they don’t evolve, they haven’t evolved in ages.
“So it’s inevitable, we’ll catch them, we would catch them at some point. The key is to make sure we are not 1.5 seconds slower again in the first race.”
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19 Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
Hamilton is reluctant to predict where Mercedes might have the best chance of winning in the remaining four races.
“I definitely think it’s always difficult to say, ‘Hey, it’s going to be good here, it’s going to be good there,'” he noted. “But we have definitely taken a step forward. I can’t predict in the next four races which race we’ll be closer to, which one we’ll be further away from or not.
“I think we were close here last year. Hopefully we might be a little bit closer this weekend – if we have the right strategy this weekend then maybe we can really give them a run for their money.
“Then Brazil was a great track for us last year. If it turns out that we are closer there again, we will have two great, strong races again.
“Then when we go to Abu Dhabi, I think the gap will be even bigger. That’s why I think we have our best chances in the next two games.”
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