Lewis Hamilton celebrates his 34th birthday today and would love to have more of the same from last year this time round too.
The Brit won his 5th World title this season, brushing aside the challenge posed by Vettel and Ferrari, one that kind of faded away towards the end of the season, largely due to the errors made by Vettel and Arrivabene, but also because Mercedes once again managed to dish out the fastest car on track.
However, with the new aerodynamic changes kicking in from 2019, Hamilton feels that Mercedes are sure to encounter a ‘weak spot’.
Toto Wolff too has earlier spoken about how the new aerodynamic changes could make one of the midfield teams jump to the top, and force one of the top 3 to slip into midfield.
And now Hamilton echoes his boss’ words, confirming that the new rules could expose a ‘weak spot’ in Mercedes’ machinery.
The Brit also has a fair idea about where that ‘weak spot’ would lie.
“For next year’s car, I have an idea, for example, where the weak spot will be with these new rule changes.” Hamilton said.
“As do [the team], so just working closely, communication, and we’re all of us constantly working so closely together, really elevating each other.
“If you look at the team’s performance on the race weekend, that our mechanics, our engineers, strategists, we’ve all raised our game.
“It’s never ever been perfect, neither of us as drivers, but collectively, as a team, I think we’ve really continued to elevate ourselves which is inspiring for me and that encourages me to go out there and not want to let them down.” he added.
Hamilton though believes that if Mercedes stick to their own formula and how they have been approaching things for all these years, they should be able to pull through.
A lot of the other teams focus on business ventures and lose sight of the larger goal, something that Mercedes need to avoid going into next season.
“So I’m confident. As long as Mercedes don’t change their approach, don’t change their desire to win… some teams decide to veer off and do some other business venture and lose a bit of focus on the main ultimate goal; as long as they don’t do that, I believe that we’ll be able to stay on this path and continue to fight at the top.” he added.
