Hamilton Insists Mercedes Are Over-Delivering To Beat Ferrari In 2019

Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes are the second best team this year and believes the only reason they are ahead of pace setters Ferrari in both the F1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship is because the team is having to over-deliver on tracks that favor the Prancing Horse.

The British driver holds a 24-point advantage over arch rival Sebastian Vettel in the championship despite openly acknowledging Ferrari have the faster car this season.

The Italian outfit have made a big step up in 2018 and are a constant threat to Mercedes. The championship race has swung between the two — but the Silver Arrows team have delivered when it mattered with Ferrari failing to grab their opportunity.

Ferrari were favorite to win in Germany and Hungary, but driver error and weather played spoil sport and they had to settle for second best. That gave Mercedes the advantage and Hamilton admitted his team were pushing harder despite the mounting pressure and urged them to continue to do so in the second-half of the campaign.

“We are racing a team that is faster than us this year,” Hamilton said, as per F1.com. “Last year we were quite balanced, as there were some weekends they were faster than us and some weekends we were faster than them.”

“But this year it is swinging more in their direction. We are having to over-deliver on race weekends and pull out more on weekends where we are not quick enough. The pressure to extract every millimetre of every ounce is greater than ever if I want to be number one at the end," the four-time F1 Drivers' champion explained.

The four-time world champion, who is in a race with fellow four-time champion Vettel to become the first to get five, admitted the driver and team that commits the least mistakes until the end of the season will be the winner when the campaign concludes in November.

Ferrari has been the team to crack thus far this campaign with a couple of questionable strategy calls and Vettel’s driver error in Germany that saw him crash out while being comfortable in the lead.

“Ultimately last year we reached just as high in terms of pressure at some point - it is just that this year it is even closer than last year as you know, so the smallest mistakes are even more costly,” the British driver added. “Then there is more pressure. That is the same for any sport if you know the last shot or last serve is the most important point it is the most intense battle.”

Vettel will have a chance to close the gap to Hamilton when the F1 season resumes at the Belgian Grand Prix on Aug. 26.