Hamilton finished third in the season-ope🔯ning Bahrain Grand Prix after gaining two positions in the closing laps thanks to Red Bull’s double retirement.

Hꦯe was running over 30 seconds behind eventual race winner Charles Leclerc before the late-race Safety Car caused by Pierre Gasly with porpoising at the cor൲e of the W13’s issues.

Mercedes has tried to reduce the impact of porpoising by compromising the car 🍨setupও and thus costing crucial lap time.

Speaking ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton revealed that Mercedes has lost a significant amount of🍃 performance by raising its car to combat the bouncing issue.

💮“I’ve not been given exact numbers but I know they are large, but I know that it’s the s✤ame for everyone,” Hamilton said. “Those have had to raise their car, there’s much steeper steps compared to what we’ve seen in previous years and there’s lots of performance when you can reduce some of the steps by lowering the cars.

“The cars that a෴re ahead of us, have for example, an incredible amount of low speed downforce. I don’t know what the exact number is but I know that it’s not small.”

Hamilton is hopeful the smoother Jeddah track surface results in less bouncing for Mercedes th🐈is weekend.

“It’s different, so yeah, it shꦦouldn’t be as bumpy as Bahrain, which is a much older circuit and has got more character to it because it is as old as it is,” he added. “This track is super fast but a different sur💮face that’ll behave with the tyres differently.

“These long, long straights might not be too fun with the bouncing if we still have it. But those that have the bouncing are in the same boat and 🙈hopefully we will try and fix some of it.”

George Russell admitted he and teammate Hamilton could be put i🧔n a “dangerous situation” if M💮ercedes struggles with porpoising through Jeddah’s high-speed bends.

“Forཧ us last week in Bahrain it was definitely not pleasant down the straights,” Russell explained. “The difference here is that there are no straights, the straights are bends. If we experienc𝄹e that, we could find ourselves in a dangerous situation but we have to wait and see, I can't look into the future.”