Lewis Hamilton says Red Bull could be embarking on an era of domination similar to his with Mercedes.
Hamilton said: “The chances are very high that that’s already happened. They are already on that way.
“It’s going to be very tough for teams to close that gap.”
Max Verstappen is on course for a second consecutive title after winning nine out of 14 races so far, while Red Bull are poised for their first constructors’ title since 2013.
However, Hamilton said he still believed his Mercedes team could make up the necessary ground to challenge Red Bull.
“If your car is fast one year, it evolves into a faster car the next year, so the gap they have now will be very hard for anyone from third down to ever close in this cycle of car design,” Hamilton said.
“But we have won the last eight world titles. As a team, we’ve got amazing and talented engineers. I don’t doubt they can.
“There are limitations with budget and wind tunnel and CFD time and we have to be very clear and precise in the direction we want to go and very efficient in our time.”
Hamilton praised Red Bull for starting this year’s new era of technical regulations so strongly, saying that they were “a great team and they’ve done an amazing job”.
And he singled out their chief technical officer Adrian Newey for special praise. Newey did his university thesis on ‘ground effect’, the aerodynamic phenomenon that has been reintroduced into F1 by this year’s rules.
Hamilton said: “They have the aero balance great. They’ve got great ride quality. He [Verstappen] doesn’t ever have any problems with bumps. When you have a stable platform like that…
“They had a great car last year as well. Adrian Newey doesn’t generally build bad cars. He has built amazing cars over the years. My first championship car was a evolution of one of his cars.
“I know he did his thesis on ground-effect floors so it is no surprise. He is one of the only ones who draws by hand. His understanding has been an advantage them and they have done a great job.”
Although Verstappen enjoyed his most dominant win of 2022 in Belgium last weekend, generally the Red Bull and Ferrari have been closely matched on performance.
Verstappen has been able to build his 98-point lead over Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc largely because of problems encountered by Ferrari, particularly race-strategy errors.
Leclerc said Ferrari “struggled to believe” Red Bull were suddenly “so much quicker from one weekend to another”, and that some of Verstappen’s advantage was “track specific” and “maybe we took some wrong choices”.
And his team-mate Carlos Sainz said it was his “feeling” that Ferrari would be competitive again at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
Alonso apologises to Hamilton
Fernando Alonso has meanwhile apologised for criticising Hamilton following their crash in the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend, saying he did not mean what he said.
The two-time champion called Hamilton an “idiot” who “only knows how to drive and start in first [place]”.
“I apologise. I was not thinking what I said,” Alonso said.
“I don’t believe it – and it’s not that I believe or don’t; there are facts that it is not that way. It is something you say in the heat of the moment.”
On Thursday, Alonso described Hamilton as “a champion, a legend of our time”, adding: “I don’t think there was much to blame in that moment.”
Mercedes posted on social media earlier this week a photo of a signed Hamilton cap indicating that it was for Alonso.
And during Thursday’s media day, Alonso joined in the joke, going to the Mercedes motorhome to collect it.
Hamilton said later: “The cap was a fun thing. It is good to have fun sometimes with these things.”
Alonso said he felt his reaction to the incident was exaggerated in the media, and repeated comments made last year in which he accused F1 of being Anglo-centric.
“When you say something – and I’m sorry to repeat this – against a British driver, there is huge media involvement after that,” Alonso said.
“They’ve been saying a lot of things to Checo [Perez], to Carlos [Sainz], to me.
“If you say something to a Latin driver, everything’s a little bit more fun. When you say something to others, it’s a little bit more serious.”
He also questioned whether team radio should be broadcast on television.
“Obviously, you should be aware that is broadcast,” Alonso said. “But it’s like if someone makes a hard tackle or something in football, in that moment you say something to your team-mate, or your defender or wherever, that is not broadcast.
“I know that this is part of the show, and as I said, all the things that are broadcast in the radio normally are a little bit spicy, because the sport wants that spice into the race.
“Unfortunately, the measure that you will have to take to avoid broadcasting things that you are not thinking on in the heat of the moment is to stay quiet all the time.”
Aston Martin driver Sebastian Vettel described Alonso’s comment in the race in Belgium as “disrespectful”.
“Lewis is one of the fairest drivers on the grid,” Vettel said. “I don’t think he had any intentions to be unfair. He did a mistake. We all do mistakes. Even Fernando.”
