Hamilton: Mercedes need to 'get the f*ck' on with it

Lewis Hamilton has issued a rallying cry to Mercedes after Ferrari won their third race in a row at Singapore on Sunday, saying the Silver Arrows need to rebound and “get the f*ck on” with their championship defence.

Ferrari have been excellent since the summer break, with Charles Leclerc winning in Spa and Monza and then Sebastian Vettel recording his first Formula 1 victory in a year in Singapore.

Even though Hamilton holds a 96-point gap to Leclerc and a 65-point lead over team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the drivers’ championship, he realises that the continuous shrinking of that gap to Ferrari needs to be stopped.

“You don’t realise how hard we work in the background, each race, even the ones we won did not come easy as you might perceive,” he explained.

“Of course, it has got tighter as the season goes on and we welcome that. But at the same time we have just got to be doing a better job. We did such a great job at the beginning of the year.

“I am under no illusion that my gap in the championship could disappear. It is not won yet.

“We need to pull our socks up and get the f*ck on basically. We can squeeze more out of this car and individually we can do better.

“We don’t feel great right now but I think that is a good thing because if anyone in the team feels relaxed right now, they need talking to, because we should all be feeling the pain.”

The next race on the F1 calendar is in Russia, and Hamilton is targeting that event for Mercedes to finally bounce back after their barren run.

“We will go to the next race and try to rev ourselves up and do a better job,” he Brit insisted.

“These next few races are going to be tough.”

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