"We won’t be competing against the Red Bulls": Lewis Hamilton's verdict after the first day of running in Australia

Lewis Hamilton gave a blunt verdict that the team could not compete with Red Bull as he looked back at the first day of running in Australia.

The Mercedes driver finished the first free practice session second in the standings but was still half a second behind Max Verstappen. Similarly, the second session was not as representative as rain interrupted the proceedings.

According to Lewis Hamilton, however, it was clear that he could not challenge Red Bull with the package at his disposal. Looking back at the day, he said:

"This morning was good, but this afternoon wasn’t as good. We made some changes after FP1 that didn’t quite work and we will look to revert this evening. It also rained in FP2, so it wasn’t the greatest of sessions. You don’t tend to learn a huge amount in those mixed conditions. It’s more about keeping the car safe."

He added:

"As we saw this morning, traffic is always an issue here. Everyone had troubles in FP1 with the GPS so hopefully that won’t happen again, and we won’t get in each other’s way. We won’t be competing against the Red Bulls tomorrow. We will be trying to get up as high as possible though; I think we’ve got similar pace to the last race in Saudi Arabia."

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Red Bull replies to Lewis Hamilton's comments about RB19

Lewis Hamilton termed the RB19 the fastest car that he had ever seen. Replying to the comments made by Hamilton, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said that they felt flattered, considering the kind of cars Mercedes has produced over the years. Horner said:

"Well, it's obviously very flattering, particularly considering some of the cars that Lewis has driven in recent history, but, you know, we've got a great car. I mean, RB19 is a fantastic starting point for the season for us and to have achieved two 1-2 finishes in the first two races is more than we could have ever expected coming into this season."

He added:

"But we're conscious it’s a very long season, there's still 21 races to go and six Sprint races, and we're conscious that big updates are coming for others in coming weeks as we head back to Europe."

Lewis Hamilton himself has not officially signed an extension on his current contract and much has been written about his future and with the continued lack of performance from Mercedes. It's hard to comment on what's next between Hamilton and Mercedes.