Lewis Hamilton details areas where Aston Martin and Red Bull were quicker than Mercedes in Canada

Lewis Hamilton believes the stable rear end of the Red Bull and Aston Martin made them much quicker around the Montreal circuit than the Mercedes. The Briton felt the ride control in the slower corners and the overall balance of both his rivals made them hard to catch.

Asked in the post-race conference what he learned from both his rivals, Hamilton said:

“Low speed, rear end. His rear end… I mean, I got to experience being behind Max and his rear is very strong. His rear end doesn’t move and he pulls ten car lengths probably on me just coming out of the corners. I think Fernando’s very, very strong on the brakes, and particularly very quick through Turn 10 and Turn 2. Those places, he was taking huge chunks out of me.”

In the podium interviews, Lewis Hamilton summarised it, saying:

“We didn't have the pace today. I think where we struggle… I mean, we knew that this weekend, this wouldn't be our strongest circuit, as we struggle in the lower-speed corners particularly. And that's really where I was losing to Fernando and to Max, just on traction out of Turn 2, out of pretty much every corner."

"We've got a lot of work to do just to add rear downforce to the car and a little bit more efficiency, but we're chipping away as I said, and I do believe we will get there at some stage," he continued. "Max was a little bit gone, but I think our pace is a little bit closer today, so we are going in the right direction.”

After following the Aston Martin and Red Bull for 70 laps, Lewis Hamilton had enough of a view o analyse their rear end. The seven-time world champion believes the rear-end stability and cornering made them sharper and quicker than the Mercedes W14.

Highlighting the speed of the Aston Martin and Red Bulls through Turns 2 and 10, the Briton felt that was where he lost out to the Aston Martin. He felt that they needed more rear downforce to stabilise their rear-end limited car.

The upgrades brought by Aston Martin to the Canadian circuit made them take a leap ahead of the Mercedes. While Verstappen’s was difficult to catch, Alonso had edged the Mercedes and managed to keep Hamilton at bay throughout the race.

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Lewis Hamilton wishes to fight Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen for a title

Lewis Hamilton claims he’s not frustrated with Mercedes' struggles but feels they have more work to do. Reflecting upon the 2021 title fight, the Briton looks forward to fighting a title with both Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso in the future.

Hamilton was happy to be in the battle at the front, compared to the struggles they faced in 2022.

Asked if it was frustrating to not be winning and watching Red Bull dominate effortlessly, Lewis Hamilton said:

“Beyond. It’s not a frustration anymore, if it ever was. It's… you know how it is, and you know what you're faced with, and there's nothing I can do about their amazing performance. It's likely that they will win every race, moving forwards, this year, unless the Astons and us put a lot more performance on the cars, or their car doesn’t finish. It's not easy with the regulations to find the amount of performance that they have, advantage-wise."

"They've got to be 30 points upon us in certain points through the lap and we've got some work to do," Hamilton said. "But it's not that it's frustrating, I just, as I said, look forward to… I'm happy to firstly be back in the mix and I'm just hoping at some stage we can have it all a little bit more level so we can get back to some of the good races we had back in 2021. And to have all three of us in a super-tight battle would be sick.”

A battle between Lewis Hamilton, Alonso and Verstappen is the blockbuster F1 needs. The last time there were different champions every year was from 2007 to 2010. One team domination has often seen a drop in viewership, but a three-way battle for a title could send the popularity of the sport soaring.