Hamilton warns Vettel, Verstappen & Bottas: 2019 average so far

Lewis Hamilton delivered an ominous assessment of his 2019 campaign so far, claiming his performances have been "average" despite winning four of the opening six races. Hamilton has amassed 137 points so far, just two fewer than Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc have between them.

Hamilton has combined victories in Bahrain, China, Spain and Monaco with second-place finishes behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas in Australia and Azerbaijan.

With Mercedes dominating across different types of track and Ferrari often getting in their own way, stopping the Silver Arrows looks unlikely at this point in time.

And Hamilton has warned the likes of Vettel, Leclerc, Bottas and Max Verstappen that he is only going to get better.

"I definitely feel that it's been quite an average performance from myself, maybe above average but generally quite average for the first six races," Hamilton said.

"I feel like I've got the best I could get. I've arrived prepared – the best prepared I could be – but in terms of extracting the true performance from the car, I feel like I've struggled a little bit in these six races.

"I guess that's kind of similar to other seasons but without doubt it's going to improve as the knowledge you gain over the season race by race, particularly with the tyres this year, where the window is even smaller and maximising…

"I do anticipate things will get better as it will be for all of us. I hope, at some stage, that I'm able to crack the issues that I've had and get back to the form that I have within me.

"Whether that's the next race or 10 races from now, I can't really say but I am very, very focused on making sure I rectify any of those."

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