'Tough' win in 2018 would mean more than the rest - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton thinks that winning the 2018 F1 championship with Mercedes would mean a lot more than his other past achievements, due to the fact he is already on the backfoot to Sebastian Vettel after a "tough" start to the campaign for the Brit.

Hamilton is currently positioned second in the driver rankings, but has not emerged victorious in a Grand Prix yet in 2018, with Vettel winning two and Daniel Ricciardo claiming the flag in China last Sunday.

Jacques Villeneuve said last week that he believes Hamilton and Mercedes are in "crisis" after their start to the season, and although they are first in the constructor rankings, the 2017 world champion does think it will be "tough" for his team this year.

“Who knows what the season holds. If we continue the way it is it’s going to be tough to win,” Hamilton said. “If there is an opportunity and we were to finish on top it would mean even more because it’s an even tougher season than before.

“It hasn’t changed my thinking, my goals are still the same. It is clear from [China] that we are not the quickest. We’ve lost performance since Melbourne and maybe more so in China.

“We are the second, or third fastest team at the moment so we have some improving to do but that’s not impossible. I think what this team has shown over the years that we are great at staying united and continuing to power on and keep working.”

Hamilton ended on a positive note, and said the team is working hard behind the scenes to improve the new Mercedes vehicle, with him having pointed out some of the shortcomings.

“Everyone here, back at the factory is just going to keep pushing as hard as possible,” he added.

“We’ve got a lot of information after the last couple of weeks. I certainly am pushing very hard.

“I’m trying to encourage [the team] so they know which kind of areas to do with the car that they are struggling the most with so they can really apply pressure maybe in those departments or just make sure that we’ve got more development coming.

“We’ve got to keep constructive pressure on the guys. They want to win just as much as all of us. It’s just a battle, working as a team.”