George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were really surprised when they got second and third place on the starting line-up of the Australian Grand Prix due to all their struggles earlier in the season. But Fernando Alonso, who is fourth on the list of racers competing in Melbourne, believes that Mercedes has an even better car than what people think — the W14.
Fernando was asked if he was shocked to see Mercedes pass Max Verstappen in terms of speed. He responded by saying that he wasn’t surprised because in the past race at Jeddah, their speeds were very close to each other and then again during practice here with Lewis in first place. Furthermore, from what they are saying about their cars, it sounded like their vehicle was able to reach Qualified Three (Q3). But Fernando does not think it is a terrible indication.
“Mercedes isn’t as good as Red Bull, but they’re getting better. They even won a race last year despite having a bad start. Alonso and others think Mercedes is actually stronger than they’ve been showing publicly.”
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz said that Mercedes drivers George and Lewis were really fast–especially during the race in Jeddah. They were going so fast, he said, that even with Ferrari, he couldn’t keep up!
Alonso said that the car is really fast and although it’s not as quickly as Red Bull, if they put their qualifying together, they’ll be a great team. Alonso also hopes that Mercedes will be able to overtake Verstappen at the beginning of Sunday’s race so that it won’t get too boring.
The driver of the Aston Martin car said there is a lot we don’t know about the race because they had to miss an opportunity to practice. He added that tomorrow maybe sunny and the temperature might be different from now.
No one is totally prepared for the race yet, so it’s going to be interesting to see who does better in terms of their speed and how they handle their car. Hopefully, Mercedes can keep Max away from winning because otherwise it may not be too exciting for him.
