Lewis Hamilton confused by 'serious' Mercedes advantage

Lewis Hamilton has explained his confusion at Mercedes' power unit advantage, branding it the "best" in F1.

In last weekend's Austrian GP, Hamilton was able to latch onto the back of George Russell's lead Mercedes but slowly fell back over the course of the first stint and eventually took fifth on his three-stop strategy. 

Ferrari did deploy an upgraded power unit for the first time at the Red Bull Ring, but it did not initially solve the lack of top-end power the SF-26 has, especially compared to the Mercedes HPP power unit. 

Despite winning seven of the eight grands prix and all three Sprints thus far, the Mercedes HPP power unit is believed to have been awarded ADUO status by the FIA, after it was judged that Red Bull Powertrains has the strongest engine.

ADUO is based on the results based of the evaluation of the Internal Combustion Engine only, with the FIA yet to officially communicate the official results of the process.

For Hamilton, he expressed his surprise at Mercedes being found to be behind a rival manufacturer.

"For some reason at the end of the straight, ours just tails off, and the Mercedes just keeps going," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365. 

"Mercedes for sure has the best power unit, and I don't know how the ADUO came out the other way around. 

"They've got serious power at the end of the straights, far more than anybody else [in Austria], so I don't know where that's coming from. 

"Is it coming from the battery, or ICE or the smaller turbo?"