“I’m aware it could take a long time”: Lewis Hamilton feels Red Bull dominance could continue without plateauing

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton is still taken aback by his rival team's pace advantage. Hamilton commented on Red Bull's straight-line speed after the Saudi Arabian GP and has now opined that their dominance might continue for the rest of the season.

After bearing with the troubled W13 the previous year, Mercedes appear to have taken a step in the opposite direction to their rivals this year. With an underwhelming start to the season, the Brackley-based outfit revealed a major upgrade is in the pipeline and will be introduced during the Imola GP.

While the revised floor and sidepod concept should make the car quicker, Lewis Hamilton reckons that it will take a long time to catch Red Bull.

"I'm aware that it could take a long time to catch a car. If you look at the Red Bull, is just going to continue to evolve most likely."

While Red Bull has managed to design a very efficient car, it is difficult to make a fast car go even quicker. While he hopes that their performance will plateau, Hamilton is aware that Red Bull has a great team around them.

"Although some cars do plateau in terms of performance, when you get to some point, it can't just keep going. But maybe it can. They've got a great team around them, so I'm sure they'll continue to add downforce."

F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia

The seven-time world champion also spoke of the timeline with regards to closing the gap with Red Bull:

"We've got to make sure when we do make the change, hopefully the job isn't too far and it's going to take us the rest of the year for sure to potentially close that gap."

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Lewis Hamilton 'hopeful' that the upgrades lead the team in the right direction

F1 Grand Prix of Australia - Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton is hopeful that the upgrades the team is bringing to the W14 will bring immediate results.

The 38-year-old said:

"There's a part of me that's just hopeful that we find the trick and we're straight onto the right track that's not far away from the others. We've shown in the past that we can develop quickly, and I hope that that's the case as the potential of the car opens up."

The Mercedes driver added:

"The guys can go full steam ahead in that direction. I'm grateful that they are open to making a shift and not being stuck with what we have."