“I was hoping we'd be better than we were”: Lewis Hamilton unimpressed by Mercedes’ performance at the F1 opener in Bahrain 

Lewis Hamilton was left with a bag of mixed emotions following the 2024 F1 season-opening race at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

With him being set to join Ferrari come 2025, the seven-time World Champion would've hoped for an emphatic start to his final campaign with Mercedes. However, the 39-year-old's woes from last season continued despite the new W15 at his disposal.

An impressive FP2 session on Thursday was followed by a lackluster qualifying race on Friday, which saw Hamilton secure P9 on the grid for Saturday's season opener. The disappointment continued for him as he encountered an energy recovery issue on lap 17 and reported a seat malfunction on lap 25, ultimately resulting in a seventh-place finish.

Lewis Hamilton spoke to Sky Sports following the race, where he expressed a sense of disappointment about the team's performance. He said (via F1Briefings):

"We probably feel a bit of disappointment within the team, I'm not sure about everyone else. I was definitely hoping that we would be better this weekend than we were, but it was a tough race, it was very close with everybody and degradation is high with the car.

"I mean the car is reliable, but I think it was a struggle in the car today," added Hamilton. "The platform, where I was given everything, but there wasn't a lot of performance there compared to some of the others."

Despite the unimpressive performance, the #44 Mercedes driver remained optimistic about the team's ability to bounce back. He added:

"It was about discovery today, I found out a lot of things about the car to improve and I'm sure the team will."

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Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes' technical failures during the Bahrain GP

Reflecting on the battery and seat issues that plagued an already upward climb for him in Bahrain, the Mercedes driver stated (via PlanetF1):

"For a while my battery was dead, so down the straights I was just de-rating the whole way down the straights, so I lost a lot of ground to the McLarens. I was fixing that out and that took a good 10 laps and I lost 15 seconds through that."

The battery issues coupled with the unsettling sensation of a moving seat, further compounded Lewis Hamilton's challenges on race day. He elaborated:

"And then after that I was just trying to get back on it and catch up once we got that fixed and then there was a bit of overheating with the brakes and in general the performance was so-so.

"My seat started moving. It clicked and my left side dropped so then it was moving through the braking zones, not great."

Hamilton's teammate George Russell finished fifth, which meant Mercedes left Bahrain with 16 points in the bag.