Lewis Hamilton says he doesn’t feel “any weight” from the win drought he is currently encountering in Formula 1.
Since switching to Mercedes in 2013 Hamilton has added 82 victories to the 21 he amassed whilst at McLaren to become the sport’s record wins holder.
However, the Briton has not won a grand prix since December 2021 amid Mercedes’ failure to get on top of the latest technical regulations introduced last year.
But having unveiled a substantial upgrade package in Monaco, the German marque’s form has improved lately, offering the team hope it can soon contend for wins again.
Nevertheless, Hamilton contends that he doesn’t feel any additional pressure to end his elongated wait to take win No. 104 in F1.
“Yeah, I don’t feel any weight,” he said ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. “We’ve gone through a tough patch and we’re kind of, like, on that up.
“And I feel that there’s been a feeling of like… For example, the last race and some of the races, it feels like we’ve had wins. It’s just about perspective.
“Of course, we’ve not been in first place but there have been many wins in the steps that we’ve taken. Last race, for us, as a team, to be on the podium with both drivers, that was a win for us. And so we’re just focused.
“We know, as I was just saying earlier, that we have that north star. We know where we need to go. We don’t know everything of how to get there but we know that together we can get there if we just keep our heads down and focus on the science.”
Hamilton has also handed credit to the Mercedes engineers for the turnaround the side has made this year, stating his belief that it has the best team at developing a car through a campaign on the entire F1 grid.
“The engineering team is fantastic within the organisation,” he added.
“We’ve got great development team and I honestly think we’ve got the best development rate, as good if not better than any team in the sport and so you’ve just got to keep chipping away.”
Lewis Hamilton (GBR) Mercedes AMG F1 W14. 18.06.2023. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 9, Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal, Canada, Race Day.
George Russell secured Mercedes’ only race win last year, leading home a 1-2 in Brazil, spelling an end to Hamilton’s unprecedented streak of being the only F1 driver in history to have won a race in each year of competition.
Hamilton’s best chance of a victory last year arguably came on home soil – but a poorly timed Safety Car late on dented his pursuit of the Ferrari pair on fresher tyres.
With Mercedes’ revised W14 car performing admirably in Barcelona and Silverstone presenting a similar proposition with plenty of high-speed corners, Hamilton hopes he can fight for a ninth British Grand Prix victory.
“Yeah, super excited to get to have the British Grand Prix,” he expressed.
“Hope… the weather has been amazing in the past week or so. When I left I think it was 29 degrees which was amazing. So let’s hope that that extends out to when we get there.
“And yeah, I’m really, really hopeful that the performance we had in the last race [Spain] … I mean, we’re only like three tenths off… each lap, I was around three or four tenths off Max [Verstappen] which was the closest I think we’ve ever been this year.
“And I’m hoping by then, we will hopefully have taken another step,” he continued. “So I’m really, really hopeful that we can… maybe that will be a race where we get to actually race them but we’ll see.”
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff has confirmed that the Silver Arrows will have further major upgrades to come before the summer break, most notably at Silverstone.
The Austrian team boss has also disclosed that the budget cap will not hamper Mercedes in making the changes needed next year to challenge Red Bull.
Despite Russell’s retirement in Canada, Hamilton’s third place – his 10th podium in Montreal – was enough to maintain Mercedes’ advantage over Aston Martin.
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