Chinese GP: Lewis Hamilton sports 'lucky' Chinese red for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton will be wearing a colour normally associated with Mercedes rivals Ferrari at the Chinese GP - red.

Ahead of a race he has won a record five times, Hamilton revealed a special baseball cap for the weekend taking inspiration from the main colour on the Chinese flag.

Hamilton impressed by Ferrari power

While red is associated with good fortune in Chinese culture, in an F1 sense it represents Ferrari - whereas Mercedes are known as the Silver Arrows.

"It wasn't that easy to get it to be red!" Hamilton explained.

"It's very red and obviously against the grain of Mercedes because of silver, green and black…but I got it through and past which is good!

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"I design my cap and I just wanted to do a special gap for this one.

"I wanted to do something with the flag and used some of the tattoo that I have on the side of the cap. Just a small token of appreciation."

Hamilton added: "It's quite a small amount of red compared to those two Ferraris... but I've got a good backing here from Team LH China so I'm less reliant on the red and more on just hard work and diligence from the team."

But will Ferrari's red win out?
Despite both red and yellow, another Ferrari colour, being considered auspicious in China, F1's Scuderia have not enjoyed particularly favourable fortunes at Shanghai in recent years.

Fernando Alonso's victory in 2013, the final year of the previous V8 engine era, is Ferrari's only one here in 12 years, with a Safety Car scuppering Vettel's hopes last season.

Vettel still 'not happy' in new Ferrari

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The impressive straight-line speed of Ferrari's car proved the big topic of Thursday conversation in the Shanghai paddock, but Vettel insists the team cannot count on that alone as they chase their first win of 2019.

"There is more than a straight here, there's also a couple of corners, so we need to get everything right," said Vettel.

"It's extremely tight at the top. I expect Red Bull to be closer again here than maybe they were in Bahrain, not sure what exactly happened there.

"We need the speed wherever we can find it. Can't really predict, but I hope we have a lot of red and yellow on Sunday."

Watch the Chinese GP live on Sky Sports F1 this weekend. Sky Sports is the home of live and exclusive F1. Find out more here to watch the 2019 season live