Hamilton not confident of new rules: 'Clearly they're holding us back'

During the press conference, after the qualifying session, the top three drivers shared their thoughts on the difference in rake between them. "I find the aerodynamics of an F1 car very interesting, but I don't know exactly what Red Bull's philosophy is. You can see that they drive with a higher rear end but not known how that is related to the new rules," Valtteri Bottas acknowledged.

Hamilton clear about new rules

The Finn is also honest about his own performance. "I think they have a very strong car. The engine, their chassis and the aerodynamics is good. They have done well this winter and we clearly need to do better". Teammate Lewis Hamilton was less vague about his opinion surrounding the new rules. "There is no secret about the rules, of course they were implemented to stop us," he said.

"We got changes to our engine to achieve the same thing, but that's okay. We like a challenge and we won't look down on these things. We will just work hard to do what we can do". The man on pole, Max Verstappen, doesn't expect the new rule changes to suddenly benefit Red Bull.

"This has been our philosophy for a long time now and I don't think you can point the difference to that. I think there are a number of factors. We know what our weaknesses were from last year and that's not just the rake, it's related. I think we also made a step forward on the engine side with Honda", the Dutchman concluded.