Lewis Hamilton Says 2018 Mercedes Car Harder To Drive Than 2017's 'Diva'

Lewis Hamilton is not happy despite winning his first race of the season at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday and taking the lead in the Formula 1 Drivers’ championship for the first time this season.

The Briton insists Mercedes still have a lot of work to do to catch Ferrari, who according to him are well ahead in terms of pure performance. The Italian team looked quick in the first four races with Sebastian Vettel taking wins in the first two races.

The German driver was leading in the third and fourth race in China and Azerbaijan, but extenuating circumstances saw him fail to take the wins and eventually settle for eighth and fourth place respectively.

Mercedes took their first win of the season at the Baku street circuit, but it was not due to being the quickest car on the track. They were fortunate due to a well-timed safety car which allowed Valtteri Bottas to take the lead from Vettel.

Mercedes’ 2017 car was labeled a "diva" by the team as it was difficult to set up at certain tracks and failed to perform at its best. But Hamilton revealed that last year’s car was easier to drive than the current one, which has been outpaced in the last three races.

"We've definitely got a lot of work still to do — we still are behind," Hamilton said after his Baku win, as quoted by Sky Sports. "Ferrari's pure pace is a lot ahead of ours at the moment.”

“We definitely are there in the mix and we've not got a terrible car at all, by any means. We've just got to refine it a little bit and make it a little bit easier to drive. She definitely isn't as easy to drive as it was last year."

Mercedes’ main area of struggle has been the tires, with the car struggling to get the best out of the Pirelli tires on offer this season. They are unable to generate enough temperature on the harder compounds, while are suffering from overheating when they move to the softer compounds.

Ferrari have no such problems — running well on all compounds thus far — and Hamilton believes that is the biggest difference this season. The British driver is confident that the car in terms of design and chassis is on par with the Maranello-based team.

“The biggest issue is the tires," Hamilton added. "I don't believe their car is much better than ours, if at all, it's just that they are using their tires better."

The F1 juggernaut arrives at the Circuit de Catalunya for the fifth race of the campaign on May 13. It was the venue for the pre-season tests in February, after which it was certain that Mercedes were well ahead of the chasing pack.

The predictions have not gone according to script and Mercedes team principal and CEO Toto Wolff is keen to see if they can return to form at the Spanish circuit, which will mean that their car’s struggles are limited to certain kinds of circuits.

"We didn't have the pace we needed to have,” Wolff said after the Baku race. "It is Ferrari who are quickest.”

"Barcelona will be interesting because in testing we were the quickest there. So we have to see where our pace has gone and whether it is just circuit-specific. There is definitely a lot of work for us to do,” he added.