Lewis Hamilton gives his take on why Red Bull are faster than Mercedes during F1 2021

After several years of dominance by Lewis Hamilton and the Mercedes F1 team, the tables seemed to have turned on them as they had no answer to Red Bull Racing's pace at the Red Bull Ring. Max Verstappen dominated the Styrian Grand Prix 2021 from start to finish as he won the race from Hamilton by a comfortable 35.743-second advantage. After being beaten for the fourth race in succession by Red Bull, the Mercedes driver conceded his team currently had not "got an answer" to the speed of their championship rivals.

Lewis Hamilton gives his opinion on why Red Bull Racing are currently faster than the Mercedes F1 team

After finishing the Styrian Grand Prix 2021 a distant second, Lewis Hamilton revealed it was impossible for him to keep up with the pace of the Red Bull. Speaking to Sky Sports F1, the Mercedes F1 team driver said, "I did say it [Red Bull's pace advantage] was around a quarter of a second, I think it was probably that on average at least - even three or four tenths. It was pretty impressive speed that they had. There was nothing I could do; I was giving it absolutely everything. I don't know really where they were gaining all that speed, I think it was everywhere in general, but particularly on the straights as far as I'm aware. They've definitely made some big steps the last couple of races and we've not really got an answer for it."

After falling short at Circuit Paul Ricard last week, Lewis Hamilton had said that the pace of the Red Bull was particularly strong on the straights, which would make it extremely difficult to overtake them at the Red Bull Ring this week. The Austrian outfit introduced fresh versions of their 2021 Honda engine two races ago in Baku, which has helped them successfully run a lower downforce rear wing to help achieve greater straight-line speed without compromising performance in the corners. Meanwhile, the Mercedes F1 team moved onto their second units of the year the race before and have not gotten any upgrades since then.

Speaking on how they are falling short in terms of the upgrades, Lewis Hamilton said, "We've not brought any upgrades; I don't remember the last time we had an upgrade. But they have. They've brought the engine upgrade and they've brought some other part of the package and it's just eeked them ahead. Whilst there's a really long way to go, with speed like that we've not really got much that we can do. I don't know, we've just got to keep pushing. I've got confidence in the team we'll somehow find something." We need an upgrade of some sort. We need to find some performance from somewhere."

F1 2021 standings after Styrian Grand Prix 2021: Max Verstappen vs Lewis Hamilton battle continues for Drivers' Championship

F1 2021 standings after Styrian Grand Prix 2021: Red Bull Racing extend lead over Mercedes F1 team in Constructors' Championship

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