Lewis Hamilton has no doubt Mercedes has finally rediscovered its “North Star” and can again navigate its way back toward becoming an F1 championship challenger.
Seven-time F1 champion Hamilton has been lifted by the performance of his revised W14 that elevated him and team-mate George Russell to second and third place respectively in the recent Spanish Grand Prix.
With upgrades on the car in the form of a new front suspension, floor and sidepods, the duo scored Mercedes’ first double podium finish since their one-two in last year’s penultimate race of the campaign in São Paulo.
The Canadian Grand Prix will provide a very different test for the car this weekend given the long straights and heavy braking zones at Montréal’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve where Hamilton has triumphed on seven previous occasions.
As to his level of confidence, though, Hamilton said: “Yeah, definitely a lot, that we’ve been making progress and (with) the car, last race, we’ve all been buzzing.
“Back at the factory, the whole team has this new energy and kind of feels like we’ve got a North Star – we know where we’re going, we know how to get there.
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“So everyone’s just churning away and working as hard as possible. Excited to come here.”
Tempering expectations to a degree, and with rain forecast across the weekend, Hamilton added: “We generally don’t know whether this track suits our car, and the car’s characteristics, but the weather may change that and we’ll see.”
As to how soon Mercedes can win again remains to be seen, with Hamilton, in particular, now 30 races without a victory.
But the 38-year-old has dismissed suggestions that with each passing race, the pressure to finally again take the chequered flag is growing heavier.
“I don’t feel any weight,” said Hamilton. “We’ve gone through a tough patch and we’re on that up.
“I feel that, for example, the last race and some other races, it feels like we’ve had wins. It’s just about perspective.
“Of course, we’ve not been in first place but there have been many wins in the steps that we’ve taken.
“Last race, for us, as a team, to be on the podium with both drivers, that was a win.
“So we’re just focused. As I said, we have that North Star. We know where we need to go. We don’t know everything about how to get there but we know that together we can get there if we just keep our heads down and focus on the science.
“The engineering team is fantastic within the organisation. We’ve a great development team, and I honestly think we’ve got the best development rate, as good if not better than any team in the sport, and so you’ve just got to keep chipping away.”
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