Hamilton: Mercedes Did A Better Job Than Ferrari, But Need More Speed

Lewis Hamilton admits that Mercedes have work to do ahead of the second half of the 2018 Formula 1 season, but believes overall Mercedes have done a better job than Ferrari despite the Italians possessing the faster car.

The sport is heading toward the mandatory summer break after the Hungarian Grand Prix concluded Sunday — but there will be a two-day test at the Hungaroring on Tuesday and Wednesday — and will return on August 26 for the Belgian Grand Prix at the iconic Spa Francorchamps circuit.

Mercedes and Hamilton lead both the F1 Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships after taking back-to-back wins at the German and Hungarian Grand Prix but the overall consensus is that Ferrari do possess the fastest car on the grid.

But the Italian team, who are trying their best to end the Mercedes dominance for the last four years, have not made the best decisions in terms of strategies in the first half of the season. While driver error — mainly Sebastian Vettel’s crash while leading the race in Germany — has also cost them dearly in both the championships.

And Hamilton believes that is the reason Mercedes are ahead at the moment despite trailing the Ferrari’s in terms of raw pace. The British driver looking for his fifth Drivers’ championship title has urged the team to improve the pace going into the second half of the campaign, but made it clear that it is not all about having the fastest car.

“This year we all know that Ferrari really do have the upper hand pace-wise," Hamilton said, according to Sky Sports. "But I think all around, performance-wise, in terms of strategy...to win a championship is not just about speed, it's about how you manage things, the strategy calls you make, mistakes, all these different things all weigh up."

"I think, as a whole, we have hopefully done a slightly better job up until now. So, we've got work to do, we've got things to improve, we've got performance to bring moving forwards. We've got to try and catch them - but we've got to continue to keep rising with all the other elements, which allows us to beat the Ferraris when they don't bring their A game,” the Briton added.

Vettel, meanwhile, is not throwing in the towel yet despite being 24-points behind in the championship and is confident Ferrari have the potential to challenge Mercedes in the second half of the campaign. The Maranello-based outfit were in contention for both titles in 2017, but fell away in the second-half owing mainly to reliability issues and also because their car could not consistently challenge the Silver Arrows’ cars.

2018, however, has shown that the Ferrari is competitive on all the tracks — be it high downforce or low downforce — and the German is confident they have the tools this time around to ensure they take the fight right until the final stages of the campaign.

"This year has shown so far that our car is more efficient, our car is stronger and still has a lot of potential to unleash," Vettel said. "So I'm quite confident with what's sitting in the pipeline that we can improve."