F1 News: Lewis Hamilton Uncomfortable With Mercedes Performance Despite Taking Championship Lead

Lewis Hamilton took the lead in the 2018 Formula 1 Drivers’ world championship after recording his first win of the season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix — the fourth race of the campaign.

The Briton was expected to be the frontrunner when the season got underway after the Mercedes team looked to be clearly quicker than their closest rivals Ferrari and Red Bull Racing after the pre-season tests in Barcelona.

The season, however, has not gone according to script with Mercedes looking off the pace with Ferrari leading the way with two race wins in the first four races. Red Bull took victory in the third race in China before the Silver Arrows team were almost gifted the win in Azerbaijan.

The Italian team have outpaced the reigning champions in the last three races with Sebastian Vettel taking three consecutive pole positions and was in a position to win before losing out due to external factors. Mercedes, on the other hand, have not challenged for the win, but were benefactors of a well times safety car in Baku that allowed them to finish ahead of the Ferrari.

Hamilton’s first win took him four points clear of Vettel in the drivers’ championship, but the Briton revealed he has "zero comfortability" as the Mercedes are not performing at their best. The four-time drivers’ champion made it clear that the team cannot continue to rely on the outside circumstances that have been helping them in recent races, which has ensured they remain in touch with Constructors’ championship leaders Ferrari.

“At the moment l am punching below my weight — and that is not sufficient to win a world championship," Hamilton said on Thursday, as quoted on Sky Sports. "I have zero comfortability. Since the last race l have not thought for one second that l am leading the world championship.”

"At the moment we are capitalising on surrounding circumstances that have hindered the outcome of a race. I'll take it for now but in the long term l can't continue to rely on it," he said.

The F1 juggernaut has arrived in Spain this weekend for the fifth race of the campaign and Hamilton is hoping the team can begin to rectify their faults and get back to challenging Ferrari and Red Bull in terms of pure performance.

Mercedes were the fastest the last time they were in Barcelona, and it is considered a track that tests the all-round performance of the car. All the teams are well aware of the Circuit de Catalunya as it serves as the pre-season testing base.

"We were very good here in winter testing and we have definitely improved since then. But Red Bull and Ferrari made a bigger gain than us from testing to Melbourne so we expect again a very close fight. But we left testing with a good set-up and that should help us," the British racing driver said. “If this weekend we start to get on top of the issues we have had and we are more consistent then l will be a lot happier.”

Vettel, meanwhile, looks more comfortable despite having victory snatched from him in the final laps at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The German is happy that Ferrari have a car that can challenge Mercedes and Red Bull at all circuits.

The Ferrari driver also admitted that the performance gap between the top three teams is very marginal and is happy that a top-six position in qualifying will give drivers a chance to fight for race wins.

“So far we can be happy," Vettel said. "We have been very competitive and have had a chance to fight for the win in most of the races."

"It is very tight at the top and small things can make the difference. But it's nice that whether you start first or sixth, you can fight for the win in terms of pure performance - which is good for people watching too because you don't know what will happen," he added.