Lewis Hamilton says he prefers a two-team battle for supremacy in Formula 1 but stressed that Mercedes cannot be criticised for the level at which it is operating.
Mercedes has battled with Ferrari for the past two seasons and on both occasions an initial close fight between the pair was resoundingly resolved in Mercedes’ favour through the second half of the year.
Mercedes and Ferrari expected another close battle in 2019 but so far the reigning World Champions have dominated the campaign, becoming the first team to chalk up five 1-2s in as many races.
It has left Hamilton and team-mate Valtteri Bottas comfortably clear in the Drivers’ Championship, with Max Verstappen 46 points adrift and Sebastian Vettel 48 down on the five-time champion.
“It is not as much fun as when you are competing against another team,” Hamilton said.
“That is was F1 is about. When you arrive and you are competing against other teams who are bringing their A game and you have another two drivers and that puts a spanner in the mix.
“When that is not there it is definitely a lot less exciting from a competition point of view, racing within a team…it is not have F1 should be.
“But it is what it is right now and it has been like that in the past, but it is not our fault these guys [at Mercedes] are good at their jobs."
Hamilton nonetheless stressed that the current situation for Mercedes is still “massively challenging” and that it cannot rest on its laurels, despite its large advantage.
“We’re still very, very focused on trying to make sure we deliver each weekend,” said Hamilton.
“We don’t come to the race knowing that we’re going to have a gap, like [in Spain].
“And also, we’re aware of… we only have a small amount of engines through the year, reliability could be an issue, anything could happen at any point, so you’re super-focussed on trying to make sure you deliver.
“We still have to deliver. It’s not a case of just rocking up and going out. We still have to work very, very hard to extract everything from the car, just as every other driver is extracting everything from their car.”
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