Hamilton 'can't afford to get tied up in a negative bubble'

Lewis Hamilton has conceded he cannot afford to "get tied up" by negativity as Red Bull and Max Verstappen look to further extend their championship advantage.

Hamilton is in uncharted waters, 18 points adrift of title leader Verstappen and in seemingly inferior machinery to the Dutchman after enjoying a relatively smooth path to success in each of the past four years since former team-mate Nico Rosberg retired from F1.

After finishing 35 seconds behind his rival last weekend, a gap exaggerated from 15 seconds after a late pit stop, Hamilton reflected he must remain positive over whether his team can turn the tables in the second half of the year.

Hamilton fought back to top FP2 for this weekend's Austrian Grand Prix but ahead of Friday's running, when asked if he was concerned about the championship situation and what lies ahead, he said: “I don’t really find myself being concerned as such.

"Of course, it’s a time – we’re all pushing as hard as we can. Of course, we’d all love to have more pace at the moment to be able to challenge not only in qualifying but in the race.

“Obviously, they’re continuing to take steps forward but I can’t get tied up and get into that negative bubble of worrying. All I do right now is just try to put all the energy into making sure I’m best prepared, helping the engineers be best prepared, lots of conversations and this is just the time where we come together, we unite and we work as hard as we can to rectify whatever issues we have.

“That is what we do. That is why we are world champions and I have confidence in the team that we can do that.”

Hamilton "knew" Mercedes had upgrades coming

In his post-race remarks following last weekend's Styrian Grand Prix, Hamilton demanded that Mercedes bring upgrades as soon as possible.

Despite team principal, Toto Wolff stating repeatedly that development of the W12 had been stopped to focus instead on 2022, chief technical officer James Allison revealed on Monday that Hamilton would get his wish for the second Red Bull Ring race.

Hamilton said: “Well, I knew that we had that upgrade coming but at the end of the day, everyone is working absolutely flat out. We are learning more and more about this car.

"We are discovering where we need to push more and extract more and [I] have all the confidence in the team that they will do over the course of time.”

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