“No secret” F1 floor rule changes designed to ‘peg back’ Mercedes - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton says it is “no secret” that Formula 1’s new aerodynamic rules were introduced to try and rein in Mercedes’ advantage over the rest of the field.

Teams have been required to carry-over a significant portion of their 2020 cars into this season as part of a major cost-saving exercise, but changes were made to the rear of the floor in a bid to reduce downforce levels and slow the cars down.

Mercedes has dominated the V6 hybrid era by winning seven world championship doubles in a row but Hamilton was beaten to pole position by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix by almost four-tenths of a second.

It came off the back of Mercedes’ struggles in pre-season testing and amid the suggestion that its lower-rake concept has been hit harder by the floor changes compared to the high-rake approach taken by Red Bull.

On Friday, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conceded that the team’s analysis had shown that to be the case and said it was “physically not possible” for the Brackley-based outfit to make its W12 a high-rake car this season.

Asked whether he felt the rule changes had been introduced specifically to influence the pecking order, Hamilton replied: “I mean it’s no secret that the changes, of course they’ve been done to peg us back.

“We had the changes of course last year to our engine to do the same thing.

“But that's OK, we love a challenge and we don't look down on these things, we just work hard to do the best we can. And that's what we'll do.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas said he had “no answer” when pressed for a response on the matter.

“I like aero stuff, I’m a bit of a geek in some ways, like aerodynamics, I’m really interested but I don’t know the facts, how exactly what’s the aero philosophy of the Red Bull,” the Finn added.

"Yes, it’s higher rake, but how much that’s going to affect with the new regulations I don’t know. I think they’ve really got a strong package overall, the power unit, the chassis, the aero are good.

“They did a good job over the winter, so we need to do a better job.”