Formula 1’s restrictions on power unit use will make it hard for Mercedes to reduce Ferrari’s straight-line speed advantage, says Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari had the highest top speed in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix . As drivers can only use three complete power units per season without penalty, Hamilton said it could be hard for Mercedes to gain on their rivals.

“On the engine side of things it’s very hard to make big gains without taking risks,” he said. “Especially with the regulations that we have these days with the amount of engines and turbos. Those steps are harder to come by.

“It’s probably a combination of a couple of things. But closing that gap in the straight speed is not something that you’ll see close up particularly quickly.”

Hamilton doubts Mercedes will be significantly closer to Ferrari in China.

“I don’t know whether we will make many improvements here,” he said. “we’ve not brought particularly any upgrades or anything like that so you’re not going to see a big difference. Coming into this weekend it should be quite similar to the previous weekend

“But conditions are different, temperatures are different here. The track demands something different from the car. I have no idea how we’re going to perform here but hopefully it’s closer.”

Hamilton won in Bahrain after Charles Leclerc suffered a fault on his Ferrari while he was leading. But he says he doesn’t want to have to rely on superior reliability to beat Ferrari.

“Obviously we didn’t expect the performance we had at the first race, we didn’t expect to see what we saw in the second race and so still it’s only the third race – it feels like it’s been a long time already – but it’s difficult to know.

“Ferrari might come here with an upgrade and be even quicker than they were. We’ve got that long straight down the back which might serve them really well here. I’m not really sure.

“I hope that we don’t have to rely on reliability and I hope that we have a much closer race. I think qualifying was OK in the last race but the race was a big, big delta and I hope this weekend it’s closer between us because this is a great track to have a real race so the closer it is the better.”

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2019 F1 season