Hamilton admits winning F1 title would be very tough

Lewis Hamilton has a fight on his hands for the F1 title this season, and he isn’t up against a fellow Mercedes driver this time round, as Ferrari and Red Bull have dished out cars that have managed to not only challenge Mercedes but also give them a lesson in race day and qualifying pace.

Mercedes find themselves without a win despite that ‘party mode’ lap from Hamilton during qualifying in Australia.

Hamilton wants to win the title this season real bad, as a win in a ‘tough’ season would be really satisfactory for him.

“Who knows what the season holds? If it continues the way it is, it’s going to be very tough to win.

“But if there’s an opportunity, and we were to finish on top, it would mean even more, as it’s even a tougher season than before.” Hamilton said in an interview with Motorsport.com.

Hamilton though is now convinced that Mercedes don’t quite have the fastest car out there. He is still confident of a comeback this season but admits that work needs to be done on that car.

“It hasn’t changed my thinking. My goal is obviously still the same, but it is clear from this weekend that we are not the quickest.

“We’ve lost performance since Melbourne, and maybe more so even this weekend. So we are second- or third-fastest team at the moment, so we’ve got some improving to do, but that’s not impossible.

“I think what this team has shown over the years is that we are great at staying united, and continuing to barrel on and keep working.

“So I know everyone here and back at the factory is just going to keep pushing as hard as possible.” Hamilton said.

The Mercedes team though is working day in and day out to get the car back to its ‘normal state’.

“I think we’ve got a lot of information over the past couple of weeks. So I certainly also am also pushing very hard, James Vowles and James Allison, Niki [Lauda] and Toto [Wolff], trying to encourage them.

“So they know which kind of areas we’re struggling most with, so they can really apply pressure maybe in those departments, or just make sure that we’ve got more development coming, or something like that.

“We’ve got to keep constructive pressure on the guys. But they’re already pressured as they want to win just as much as all of us. It’s just a battle, just working as a team.” he concluded.