Lewis Hamilton has stated that Mercedes' pace deficit to Red Bull shouldn't come as a surprise, given the team's relative lack of development. Hamilton couldn't close the gap to Max Verstappen during Sunday's Styrian Grand Prix, but the British driver, who is chasing a record eighth F1 drivers world title, isn't giving up without a fight. "I think we've got still many races ahead of us, and we got to keep pushing," Hamilton told RacingNews365 and other selected members of the media. "We're world champions and that's what we need. We can definitely improve if we put our minds to it. But yeah, I mean, if we're not to develop and improve our car for the rest of the year, this is the result you're gonna see. "Because as I said, that really eked out performance in these last few races, whenever it's been in France, with the engine or with a new wing, but there's another Technnical Directive coming out for the wings. I don't know if they're stopping the bendiness or not. Maybe that levels the playing field." However, while Hamilton was seemingly unhappy with his team's rate of development compared to Red Bull's, he refused to question their decision to focus on next year's car. Mercedes are already switching focus to the 2022 regulation changes that are due to be introduced from next year onwards. "I'm not going to question the team's logic and how they go through the process. Of course, as I said, I'd love if they'd have given us an upgrade, we would love an upgrade. But I don't think is in the pipeline at the moment, we were down on a few areas," the 36-year-old added. "But as I said, they've taken a decent step forwards and we'll work as hard as we can to maneuver around it. But in terms of baseline performance, this is what we got. I think we did a decent job today, but it's probably gonna get harder."
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