Hamilton Insists Red Bull Are Insanely Fast

Although previously telling the media that McLaren will soon close the gap on rivals Red Bull and Ferrari in the championship, 2008 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton insisted that the formers have a “ridiculous” margin ahead of all the other competitors this year. The Brit scored a podium in Bahrain as a result of Sebastian Vettel’s engine problems, but reckons no team in the F1 paddock is a match for the Red Bull organization for the time being.

“The Red Bull is ridiculously faster than anyone else's car. It's insane. The downforce they had on their car last year was at some points just about double what we had,” said Hamilton to the media, according to Autosport.

“Even at the end of the year they had so much more than us, even though we had won a couple of grands prix. They have both got the fastest car by quite a big step. They should be quite a lot further ahead in general,” added the McLaren driver.

Recently, McLaren, Mercedes and two other teams were told by the FIA to modify their rear diffusers ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, which means Hamilton will have to deal with even less downforce from his car from no on. Additionally, Renault have been granted permission to work on their F1 engines by the FIA (Red Bull are using Renault powerplants in the series).

Under the circumstances, Ham believes it will be a while until someone can challenge Red Bull for the top spots, reckoning that Ferrari are in the best position for now.

"Fernando I think was very quick in the race and they are obviously a little bit closer, but it's a good half second (deficit),” added Ham, who further admitted that his team is currently battling against Mercedes for the 3rd spot in the series.