Lewis Hamilton has his fighting spirit back. The British driver describes his entire Australian Grand Prix weekend as ‘strong’, and almost saw an end to his podium drought at Ferrari. According to Hamilton, he only needed ‘one or two laps’ to overtake his teammate Charles Leclerc for third place. Although the Mercedes cars seem too strong for now, the world champion is also convinced that Ferrari can take the fight to the Silver Arrows: ‘I really believe we can close the gap’.
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Lewis Hamilton’s podium drought is not over yet. The Ferrari driver just missed out on the podium during the opening race in Melbourne, while teammate Charles Leclerc was able to receive a trophy along with George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli. Ferrari got away well at the start, however, but lost their lead over Mercedes when they decided not to call Leclerc and Hamilton in for a pit stop during the Virtual Safety Car periods.
Hamilton thus finished no higher than fourth place, but remains hopeful that there is more in store this year. “I’ve been really strong all weekend,” Hamilton told Sky F1. “Qualifying didn’t really show the true pace. I think we had a few issues during qualifying, which left me further back than I should have been. Anyway, today obviously none of us knew how it would really go, but I felt great from the start and was clearly catching up to Charles at the end.”
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‘One more lap and I would have overtaken Charles’
The seven-time world champion is therefore certain that a podium finish was almost within his reach in Melbourne. “A few more laps and I would have overtaken Charles, so maybe one or two more laps,” Hamilton continued. “So there are a lot of positives, we still have a lot of work to do to catch Mercedes, but it’s not impossible. So really, thanks to everyone at the factory, I’m really proud of the work we’ve done. But we still have to keep pushing and stay committed.”
Mercedes did look faster than the Scuderia over one lap. Yet Hamilton believes his team can catch the Silver Arrows. “That’s what I said. I really believe we can close the gap,” the driver said. “I think it won’t be easy. We still have a lot of work to do to close the gap, because it’s quite large, especially over one lap. We need to figure out if it’s the power or the battery, but the car is just as fast in the corners. So we just have to keep pushing.”
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