“Lewis is performing really at the top of his game," Mercedes technical boss says
Tuesday 12 May 2015 13:59, UK
Mercedes technical boss Paddy Lowe reckons Lewis Hamilton is currently driving better than he has at any point during his F1 career.
Speaking during Friday’s FIA press conference, he said the world champion is now at his peak. The pair have worked together throughout Hamilton’s nine-year F1 career, with Lowe following him from McLaren to Mercedes in 2013.
Asked what team-mate Nico Rosberg could do to challenge Hamilton, who has won three out of the four races held so far this season, Lowe replied: “Lewis is performing really at the top of his game.
“I’ve worked with Lewis actually throughout his Formula 1 career and I would say, at the moment, he’s really at his peak, the best he’s been driving so far.
“That’s a tough prospect for any driver to compete with. Nico’s doing a great job; I was particularly pleased with how he performed in Bahrain. We let him down at the last minute, which is why he lost the second place.
“We saw he did some fantastic driving, some great overtaking, which showed that he has great racecraft.
“I think Nico is doing a good job, it’s just tough to beat Lewis. The season’s still young and I think there’s plenty of prospect for a good battle between them.”
With Ferrari closing the gap this season after Mercedes dominated the first year of F1’s hybrid era, Lowe also denied that his team have been conservative on development.
Sebastian Vettel won the Malaysia GP for the Scuderia while Kimi Raikkonen pushed Hamilton rather closer in Bahrain than Mercedes – both of whose cars suffered brake problems - might have wished.
“No, not at all,” came the response. “We put in a very aggressive programme over the winter, both on the engine and on aerodynamics and on other parts of the car. So no, not a bit of it.
“We expected a very tough season as a second iteration of this new formula and we weren’t going to get through that without a lot of development on the performance of the car.
“Credit to Ferrari, they’ve done a good job over the winter to make a big step and approach and even exceed our performance from time to time.
“That’s set the place for a very tough competition throughout the year.”
