Mercedes worried Ferrari will be quicker all year

Mercedes drivers Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton have admitted their concern that they will not be able to match the speed of Ferrari for the remainder of the 2019 Formula 1 season, particularly on straights where the Scuderia are looking the most strong.

The Silver Arrows have made a good start to the new campaign, and after two consecutive one-two finishes in Australia and Bahrain, find themselves 39 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' championship.

Ferrari have displayed impressive speed on straights, more so than Mercedes and Red Bull, only to be let down by engine reliability.

Bottas believes it will be tough for his team to match that speed even if they try for the whole season.

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"Making four tenths in pure power of the engine is very difficult to gain over one season,” said the Finn.

"It's a track with very long straights,” he added, with reference to the Shanghai International Circuit in China,

“And straight-line power and speed is really important here. We know Ferrari are going to be strong, and hopefully we have our strengths in other places."

Hamilton echoed the comments of his team-mate, saying that Mercedes must look to be better than Ferrari in other areas if they cannot compete on speed.

"It's impressive to see," he said.

"It just means that we are challenging other areas to try and pull more from the car. But my confidence and our focus and our attention has not wavered, and I'm still very confident that we can extract more on weekends.

"It's not just about straight-line speed; it's about cornering, performance, reliability, the mechanical side, how you approach a weekend - all these sorts of things.

"Closing that gap on the straight speed is not something you'll see close up particularly quickly."

The five-time world champion even suggested that Ferrari could be even faster in China, due to the long straight on the track which plays to their strengths.

"Ferrari might come here with an upgrade and be even quicker than they were. You've got that long straight down the back," added Hamilton.

"I hope that we don't have to rely on reliability and we have a much closer race. In qualifying it was OK in the last race, but in the race there was a big, big gap.

"I hope this weekend it's closer between us because this is a great track to have a real race. The closer it is, the better."

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