15/06/2019
NEWS STORY
Courtesy of a mistake which subsequently led to a controversial time penalty, Sebastian Vettel handed victory in Canada to world champion Lewis Hamilton, thereby giving Mercedes its seventh win from seven races.
In addition to leaving the German 62 point adrift of the Briton, the win leaves Ferrari 123 points behind Mercedes.
Due to the nature of the track, with its numerous straights, Ferrari was always regarded as a threat to Mercedes in Canada, however, Hamilton believes that an additional power mode gave the Italian team even more of an edge.
"The Ferrari is ultimately this weekend so strong," he said. They were so quick on the straights.
"They definitely have another power mode that we currently don't have," he added. "So, all of a sudden they turn up the power and he pulls away massively on the straight, even if I have DRS open."
While Mercedes claimed that the Ferrari had a 0.6s advantage on the straights, during the race Vettel could be heard being told to go to "engine mode one"
"In the race I know all of a sudden they picked up a lot of pace on the straights, but that's the name of the game," said Hamilton. "They've clearly done a great job with their power unit.
"There used to be a point where Mercedes was ahead in that area by a good chunk. We've got work to do there. They are ahead of us at the moment there."
"We've got work to do," he admitted. "We've seen how quick the Ferraris were, and they were right there in the last race as well, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out."