Lewis Hamilton has not won in F1 since December 2021 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and plans to end his winless streak before the end of the season. Last year was the first time Hamilton didn’t win in an F1 campaign during his 16 seasons in the sport, which began in 2007.
“I anticipate the Red Bull’s going to blitz it because the car has been great, but if that’s not the case, then I’ll be ready to take the fight to them,” Hamilton said.
If it can be anything like Austin and we can get the strategy better, then that would be incredible.
“I came away empty handed last year, so I don’t plan on that this year.”
While Hamilton is clearly relishing being back in contention for race victories, the seven-time world champion is refusing to get carried away by Mercedes’ strong recent form, given a similar end to 2022 failed to carry over to this season.
He said: “After the last couple of races, you get messages from people saying, ‘it’s looking good!’ I’m like, ‘yeah, it was looking good at the end of last year too, but we started 1.5 seconds at the start of the year.’
So I’m not dazzled by where we are currently. I’m happy and proud. The only reason I’m on the podium is the great work that’s gone on in the background.
“But I’m thinking quite long-term at the moment, and then short-term just trying to solidify second in the constructors’ (championship) because that’s so important for everyone within the team.”
Mercedes were last winless in a season in 2011 and have three more chances to stand on the top step of the podium – in Brazil, Las Vegas or Abu Dhabi.
Hamilton showed strong race pace in Mexico City after the red flag for Kevin Magnussen’s crash – stretching a used set of medium tyres to the end of the race and setting the fastest lap on his final circuit.
The 38-year-old, who has won three times in Sao Paulo, says it will be “all hands on deck” to finish this year on a high.
“I don’t really know. I expect the Red Bull to be very fast, as always. It seems to work pretty much everywhere, except for Singapore,” said Hamilton.
“We expect the Ferraris to be quick. I hope that our car works well here, like it did for Austin, but you can just never predict – it could be bad, it could be good, so we’ll just try to prepare the best way we can.”
