Lewis Hamilton targeting 'near-perfect' weekends all season

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton targeting 'near-perfect' weekends all season

He's expecting improvements from Ferrari and Red Bull.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 16 April 2019 12:52

Lewis Hamilton believes that Mercedes will need to be “near-perfect” for every race weekend this season if they are to continue their dominance over the constructor’s championship, as he expects both Ferrari and Red Bull to improve as the 2019 season develops.

The current campaign couldn’t have started better for the Silver Arrows as they have secured three one-two finishes in a row, with Hamilton winning in Bahrain and China.

Hamilton says Chinese GP win was redemptionRead more

Article continues under video

However, he insists the team isn’t going to become complacent, and is targeting near-perfection in every race.

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, we’re naturally keeping our heads down and working,” Hamilton said.

“But we’ve got another close battle on our hands.

“I don’t know where the Red Bulls were [in China] but I know that the Ferraris are right there. I think we’ve got races coming up that could potentially suit them more.

“We didn’t expect to have the [advantage] in Melbourne, we didn’t expect to have the deficit [in Bahrain] and we didn’t expect this weekend to have the bit of advantage we had here. So it’s still up in the air.

“But ultimately as a team we’ve collectively performed, and we’ve really, really delivered on the weekends so we’ve just got to continue to do so.

“The key this year is to deliver near-perfect weekends – weekend-in, weekend-out – and that has to be the goal.”

The five-time world champion ultimately thinks that Mercedes are outperforming expectations so far, while he reckons that Ferrari are not getting the best out of their car at the moment.

“I think we’re over-delivering a little bit at the moment to our true, true potential,” Hamilton suggested.

“I think with what we have, we are operating at [our] full potential.

I’ll always remember today 🏆🇨🇳✌🏾 pic.twitter.com/UL00CM2Qne
— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) April 14, 2019

“But there will be more performance and improvements to come in the future, we will make steps forward.

“I think [in Bahrain], you can’t say that we necessarily won on full merit because we weren’t quick enough to win the race, but things happened along the way and you have to put yourself in position to get the wins, and we did that.

“I think [in Australia and China], it’s full-on merit.

“They’ve got a good car, the Ferraris, it just doesn’t look like they’re extracting their full potential on the weekends. And then the execution doesn’t look as faultless as they have shown in the past.

“We all have ups and downs, but that’s where we are really diligent in making sure our processes are as accurate as they can be.”

Hamilton currently leads the driver’s championship, having accumulated 68 points so far.