F1 LIVE: Lewis Hamilton tipped to do a Schumacher, Mercedes ‘civil war’ breaking out | F1 | Sport

The build-up to this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix is already well underway, with Lewis Hamilton aiming to recover from his disappointing fifth-placed finish in Bahrain last time out by targeting a podium finish on the streets of Jeddah. The Brit looks set for another turbulent campaign due to Mercedes’ lack of pace but will be hopeful that things will improve for the Silver Arrows when they travel to the Gulf state later this week.

It seems as though Mercedes will struggle to challenge Red Bull on a consistent basis over the course of this season, with the Austrian outfit clearly the quickest team on the grid after securing a dominant one-two finish in Bahrain earlier this month. Mercedes recently vowed that they will not panic if their sluggish pace continues in a rare open letter to fans, with Toto Wolff and his colleagues doing everything in their power to stop the rot by working hard to find some much-needed performance gains at the team’s Brackley headquarters.

“It hurt the team as a whole, after pouring so much hard work into a car that hasn’t met our expectations,” read the letter, which was published in the aftermath of the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix.

“And we know it hurt you, our fans, too. Your passion and support are so important in driving us forward – and we know that we feel the same pain. We won’t panic or make knee-jerk reactions. In a spotlight as fierce as F1, people are quick to point fingers, or look for scapegoats. But you know us better than that.”

However, F1 expert Craig Scarborough has suggested that not all is well internally at Brackley with a ‘civil war going on’ between Wolff, Hamilton and the teams’ mechanics.

Meanwhile, Martin Brundle has suggested Hamilton could consider following the path set by Michael Schumacher, leaving Mercedes to build up another team like Ferrari back into world champions.

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