Reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton has praised Mercedes’ ability to avoid complacency but says he wants to understand its ‘imperfect’ weekends, in spite of a strong opening half of 2019.
Mercedes entered the season off the back of five straight Drivers’ and Constructors’ titles but has remained the benchmark in Formula 1.
It has won 10 of the 12 grands prix to be held so far this year, eight of them by Hamilton, seven of them in 1-2 formation, and holds a 150-point advantage in the Constructors’ Championship.
“What’s really great in this team is that I don’t think we’re ever complacent,” said Hamilton.
“And even if we sometimes are it nips us in the bud and we pull back.
“But the majority of the time we don’t get complacent, we always arrive with the same mentality, we’ve had all this success yet everyone continues to work just as hard, and no-one is better than the other, and we all lift each other up.
“These eight wins in the first half of the season is obviously exceptional.
“If anyone ever talks down upon our success you’ve got to remember how those who have had success will know how hard it is to achieve it even if you do have [a] performance [advantage].
“You [have] still got to arrive and deliver weekend in, weekend out, there’s still two drivers per team, so actual delivery is paramount.
“Obviously Ferrari have had a good package, have come with a certain philosophy this year that doesn’t work everywhere.
“Red Bull looks like… I don’t know what changes they’ve done to the car but they seem to really have turned it around, the engine’s obviously made a pretty big step for them as well which is great.”
Hamilton holds a 62-point advantage over team-mate Valtteri Bottas in his quest for a sixth title, and has taken eight wins from 12 races.
The Briton has stressed that his focus is on understanding the opportunities that slipped through his grasp, as well on weekends where Mercedes triumphed courtesy of setbacks for rivals.
“I look at those races and say ‘eight out of 12, there’s still some missing’, so how did we miss those ones, how were we not perfect on those weekends,” he explained.
“We’ve also had races where we were fortunate, where Ferrari were quicker, but sometimes through team error, sometimes driver error, which has put them in a position, like in Baku or Bahrain, where they had the car failure else they were the ones [that would have won].
“It just shows you how on the edge we all are and you can’t take anything for granted so you’ve just got to keep working at it.
“I truly believe this second half of the season could be much, much harder for us in the sense that we’ll continue to have this battle.
“I can tell you we’re not perfect, by far, we’ve still got areas where we will continue to improve and I’m looking forward to that journey.”
