Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes won’t copy Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton has vowed that Mercedes will stick to their own principles rather than trying to copy ideas from other teams as they look to get back into title contention in 2023.

The seven-time world champion failed to win a single race last season for the first time in his career, while team-mate George Russell was only on the top step of the podium once as Mercedes finished well off the pace in the standings.

Max Verstappen won his second successive championship as Red Bull enjoyed a dominant campaign, and they look set to be the team to beat again this year. It has been suggested that Mercedes could look to copy Red Bull to improve their car and close the gap to their rivals, but Hamilton has backed the Silver Arrows to come up with their ideas.

‘Of course you can see that some of the cars are approaching what a Red Bull might look like, perhaps with the exception of Ferrari,’ Hamilton said as Mercedes launched their W14 car this week.

‘I don’t think we’ve ever been a team that copied other people.

Lewis Hamilton is adamant that Mercedes will not look to copy Red Bull this season

Toto Wolff is hopeful that Mercedes can learn from the issues that they faced last season

‘We’ve always had our own mind and have always been a team that’s incredibly creative and innovative and likes to do it our way. And I think that’s worked in the past.’

Hamilton won six titles in seven seasons between 2014 and 2020, while Nico Rosberg picked up the other as Mercedes pulled clear of every other team on the grid.

They fell back into the pack last year, and team principal Toto Wolff has admitted that the team had issues all year.

However, there were encouraging signs in the final races of the season, and the German wants Mercedes to build on their finish to 2022 when the 2023 campaign gets underway.

‘Last year was difficult but it came with lots of learnings,’ Wolff acknowledged.

‘I hope 2023 will be proof that we have understood how to unravel the problems and improve the package of the car.

‘Our car performed very well at the end of the season.

‘However, we still had the famous bouncing at some circuits and the car never gave the drivers good feedback, which limited them in being able to really push.

‘We have tried to keep all the goodness of the W13 and address its weaknesses.’

Pre-season testing is set to take place next week, with the first race of the year in Bahrain on March 5.