We Are Racing a Team That is Faster – Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has said that the team has been digging deep to combat Ferrari. As a result, they are forced to over-deliver on race weekends in order to fend off Ferrari’s mighty challenge.

Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel and their respective teams, have been swapping places at the top of the standings in 2018. The Italian team and the German driver had the upper hand over their rivals early on in the season.

But now, courtesy Vettel’s mistake at Hockenheim and Ferrari’s relative underperformance in Hungary, Mercedes have caught up. The German outfit and Hamilton put together a series of good results to retake the championship lead.

But where Ferrari have the edge is in the ongoing development race. The progress made by its power unit have put the SF70-H ahead of Mercedes’ W09.

“We are racing a team that is faster than us this year,” Hamilton said.

“Last year we were quite balanced, as there were some weekends they were faster than us and some weekends we were faster than them.

“But this year it is swinging more in their direction,”.

“We are having to over-deliver on race weekends and pull out more on weekends where we are not quick enough.

“The pressure to extract every millimetre of every ounce is greater than ever if I want to be number one at the end.”

The next race of the season is the Belgian Grand Prix at the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit. This particular circuit is a fan favourite among several drivers and many dream of mastering it.

Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel have fairly decent records at the track with Lewis winning 3 times to Vettel’s 2. Vettel’s teammate Kimi Raikkonen has won there 4 times in his entire career and has had a fantastic run over there.