Hill names reason for OPTIMISM at Mercedes

F1 world champion Damon Hill has stated that he believes Mercedes have taken a 'leap forward' in performance and are becoming more of a threat to Red Bull at the front of the field.

The Brackley-based team failed to solve the overarching issues presented by the W13 with their 2023 challenger, the W14, and went into the first race of the season notably slower than Aston Martin on pure pace.

However, in the following two rounds, the Mercedes package looked more impressive with Hamilton holding off Alonso to secure a P2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix.

Comments from within the team have suggested that more major upgrades are on their way ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix at the end of April, although the likelihood of Mercedes making a major dent in Red Bull's advantage is thin.

Mercedes moving forward

Speaking on the F1 Nation podcast about the Mercedes package in Melbourne, Hill stated: "Mercedes was seemingly making some progress [and] inroads to bring some challenge to Red Bull.

"But the early races can be misleading and we sort of had our heads in our hands a little bit after Bahrain and then things became a little more interesting at Saudi [Arabia]."

The former world champion argued that Mercedes had taken major steps forward from their difficult season opener in Bahrain.

"I thought I saw signs of the Mercedes, particularly, having made a leap forward after Friday. The car just looked completely different on the Saturday and it sort of continued right through to Melbourne."

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