Hamilton focused on Red Bull 'downforce' threat

Lewis Hamilton says his main concern for now is Red Bull's potential threat to Mercedes dominance given the Milton Keynes team's expertise in aerodynamics.

The Silver Arrows driver who sampled his new mount earlier today believes the new regulations play directly into Red Bull's very capable hands.

"I think the big unknown is Red Bull," Hamilton says.

"I think they always create an amazing car and this is a new area of downforce and they’re amazing at creating downforce so I think it’ll be really interesting to see what they pull out and I’m hoping it’ll be a real mixture of competition.

"I hope it’ll be close so we’ll be fighting with Red Bull and Ferrari. That’s what the fans want to see."

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Hamilton also chimed in on the debate about overtaking, saying it will be a more difficult exercise if he follows the enlightened opinion of his engineers.

"My engineers say it’s going to be a lot harder to overtake," he said.

“If we see overtaking is worse, it’s going to be worse for the fans, the spectacle will be worse so I’m hoping that’s not the case.

"For example, I heard tyres might not be as grippy as we’d hoped but the aero downforce is going to be huge because it’s a bigger, wider car so there’s going to be more downforce, so the car behind will be affected even more than it ever was before.

"And I’ve heard the engineers said this would potentially happen and there is an alternative route but this is the route that’s chosen.

"So we are where we are and I really hope that the engineers, who are the smartest guys, are wrong and I hope that the spectacle is greater and the most competitive that it’s ever been and if it is, then I look forward to being part of that."

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