Hamilton wants to participate in the Mugello tests

Close to securing his third pole position at Sakhir, Lewis Hamilton nevertheless struggled during the race. Even though the McLaren driver lost precious seconds in the pits due to two extended tire changes, he never seemed truly capable of fighting for the victory or even defending his second place: “I was struggling to find the pace while Sebastian was pulling away at a rate of a second per lap, I was struggling to manage the tires. I simply wasn’t fast enough. I still think I could have finished fourth or fifth, but finishing eighth after two bad stops is disappointing. The only positive is that I earned four points, but overall, there wasn’t much positive to take away,” the Englishman confided to the British press.

For the native of Stevenage, who was thus forced to concede the lead of the world championship to Sebastian Vettel, McLaren must continue to work hard to uncover the evident weaknesses of the MP4-27, in the race, in Bahrain: « We have a lot of work to do. We really need to make significant improvements to the car because the pace in qualifying is there, but in the race, at least in Bahrain, we were far off. We need to go back to the drawing board and try to understand where we are losing time […] then we have to keep working harder at the factory and if anyone can solve this, it’s us. »

Next week, at Mugello, McLaren will be able to take advantage of the three test days available to each team, but the Woking men have decided, before the Bahrain Grand Prix, to give their main drivers a rest and to call on test drivers, Gary Paffett and Oliver Turvey. However, Lewis Hamilton hopes that in light of his team’s performance in Bahrain, Woking will reconsider their plans: « I need to get back in the car. We need to find out why the tires are degrading so much. If there are other things to try or other ways to understand this, I will be the one to do it, I won’t let anyone else do it [for me]. »