Lewis Hamilton says he expects Red Bull to be “very strong” at this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix due to its prior results at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Hamilton trails title rival Max Verstappen by 12 points in the championship in the wake of the Red Bull driver’s victory at the previous event in the United States.
Verstappen claimed back-to-back victories in Mexico in 2017/18 and was quickest during qualifying in 2019 prior to being slapped with a grid penalty.
“Well I mean last year [2019] they were quite a bit quicker than us so yeah you’d have to say that this is a Red Bull track but we have had success here in the past,” said Hamilton.
“We did win here last time but that was only because Max made a mistake and got a penalty, otherwise, they were much quicker than us.
“So we expect that they will be very strong this weekend.”
Hamilton nonetheless emphasised that he is relishing the nature of the 2021 title battle and stressed that Mercedes has to “leave no stone unturned” if it is to claim overall honours.
“It’s definitely exciting,” said Hamilton. “The fact is we haven’t brought an upgrade for a long time, since Silverstone obviously.
“We know that they were bringing upgrades well past that and they generally have a little bit of extra performance on the rear end of their car.
“It seems like in the hotter places they seem to be doing a little bit better than us and this is just been a track they’ve been very, very strong at, like Budapest for example, where they’ve been strong in the past too.
“It doesn’t mean that we can’t be strong this weekend. We will find out when we get out there but of course, it means we have to extract absolutely everything and pushing absolutely to the limit, trying to leave no stone unturned, no performance on the table which can happen.
“We’re just trying to make sure that we cover every area possible.”
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