Hamilton wants Merc gains: 'Anything from the wind tunnel, we need it!'

Hamilton had to settle with fifth place in the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix but finished over 50 seconds adrift of race-winner Max Verstappen, who dominated to lead a Red Bull one-two. 

The seven-time world champion underlined the scale of the challenge Mercedes are facing in a post-race rallying call to his team. 

Speaking later in the pen, Hamilton called for a ‘massive’ push from Mercedes to add downforce to the W14. 

"I gave it absolutely everything,” Hamilton told Sky. 

"I am generally happy with the race. It was much better than Qualifying and I am generally happy in terms of my performance.

"I thought the team did a great job in terms of pit stops and just unfortunately the car is not there at the moment.

"We are just lacking downforce and we have got to work really hard to add that ASAP.

"Anything from in the wind tunnel, we need it tomorrow. We have really got to push massively to try and close that gap.

"The Red Bull pace today was obviously huge, must have been at least a second a lap.

"But those around us, I think we could catch at some stage.” 

Hamilton lost out in a brilliant tussle with Fernando Alonso, who went on to claim a stunning podium on his Aston Martin debut. 

The 38-year-old admitted there was little more he could have done to have claimed a better result. 

"I really did [enjoy the battle with Fernando]. As a driver, you are always hoping that you are going forwards, but at least getting a tussle.

"I think today was a much more enjoyable battle I was having out there.

"The start was great, I gained a couple places and got Fernando in Turn 4.

"Then we had that battle and I was also close with the Ferrari at some stage so there isn't much else I could have done today.

"Set the car up differently maybe? But overall it is just lacking performance so we have got to keep working on it."