Lewis Hamilton has called for “all hands on deck” at Mercedes to “keep pushing” after he delivered his strongest result of the season at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The 39-year-old ended the longest podium drought of his F1 career at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, having not finished on the grand prix rostrum since last year’s race in Mexico City.
Mercedes has seen improvements of late, and has been able to almost completely remove the performance gap to McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull ahead.
At the previous round in Canada, whilst George Russell could not convert his pole position into victory, his third-place, with his team-mate fourth, was the team’s best return of the season – a result it equalled in Spain.
“Yes, big boost to finally get a good result. It’s been a minute since I’ve been up here in the race,” Hamilton told media including RacingNews365 after he finished on the podium in a second consecutive three-four result for Mercedes, before thanking the team and rallying his colleagues for further improvements.
“So a huge, huge thank you to the team who have done an amazing job to… just with all the processes through the race weekend but particularly everyone back at the at the factory for working so hard the extra-long hours to bring components to the car.
“And we’re slowly getting closer. Last year we were very fast here, so you have to take it with a pinch of salt, but obviously the last couple of races we’ve also been relatively competitive.
“I think we have closed the gap a little bit but we still have a good couple of tenths to try and find. So we just got to have all hands on deck and keep pushing.”
Mercedes building momentum
Whilst Hamilton contends the result does come with a “pinch of salt”, he does believe Mercedes is “definitely” building momentum for the rounds to come.
The 103-grand prix winner has struggled in qualifying of late, relative to Russell, so he was quick to highlight the advantage of having a strong grid-setting session in Spain.
Despite lining up just ahead of his team-mate in Barcelona with both on the second row of the grid, a poor start left Hamilton on the back foot, whilst Russell vaulted himself into the lead.
“We definitely are. We definitely are. We’re definitely getting more consistent,” the future Ferrari driver replied when asked if he feels like Mercedes is building momentum.
“And if I can just get my qualifying to be like this weekend, then it makes the Sunday so much easier. Also, if you get a good start.
“But my Saturdays have been so bad for the last, like, 15 races. So it’s good to have a clean weekend. And hopefully, this puts us in a good position to challenge in the next few races.”
Verstappen’s brilliant win, as Norris is continuing to develop as a driver. Perez’s struggles and Lewis Hamilton’s return to the podium are also discussed!
Join the latest episode of the RacingNews365.com podcast, reflecting on the Spanish Grand Prix and looking ahead to this weeked’s Austrian Grand Prix!