Barcelona [Spain], June 6 : Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is targeting Red Bull in the Drivers and Constructor championship after the success of Mercedes at the Spanish GP. Hamilton finished in the second position on Sunday behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen.
"With the current car we have I don't think we'll be matching their performance, but we are working on improving the car," Hamilton was quoted as saying by Sky Sports.
Hamilton agreed that the team has made improvements in the car but stated that they need to bring further improvements in order to close the gap between Mercedes and Red Bull.
"With the current package we are limited to the pace that we had today, but there's a huge amount of work and studying and improvements that we hopefully will have coming in the future. Naturally, they should probably also be progressing through the year, so we need to be taking big chunks out of them with every step we take," he added.
The seven-time champion had his best performance of the season so far, his teammate George Russell finished third to bag two podiums for Mercedes in a very long time.
"Today they were a good few tenths ahead of us, maybe half a second ahead of us per lap. On a single lap that's a little bit bigger. I think we are going in the right direction and I know we have something in the pipeline moving forwards." said Hamilton.
"I'm hoping at least by the end of the year it would be great if we could challenge them. For me, I'm more focused on making sure that we have the car next year to challenge them from day one. " He added as per Sky Sports.
Mercedes had recently upgraded their cars, the new upgrades include a new floor and front suspension as well as the highly visible bodywork on the W14.
"The further we continue to push this car this year, the more that impacts next year also in some ways. The more we learn about this car also sets us in the right direction. It's trying to find the right balance," said Hamilton.
Hamilton further added that even though Mercedes surpassed Aston Martin to take the second spot in the constructor championship 2023, their rival Red Bull is still far ahead in terms of total points.
"They [Red Bull] are so far ahead and ultimately Max will continue to win this year. That means they can start on their development for next year sooner and earlier than everyone else if they haven't already and that's the danger." Hamilton concluded.
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