Lewis Hamilton is maintaining the pressure on his team mate over Ferrari’s Mexican Grand Prix defeat.
The two Ferrari drivers went off the track while disputing the lead on the first lap in Mexico, handing Max Verstappen a route to victory. Team principal Frederic Vasseur admitted they should not have lost the race after the two cars led into turn one.Hamilton says Charles Leclerc raced him too hard at the start. “We should have easily had a one-two last race,” he said yesterday, “and we’ve got to work to make sure that that never happens again.”
He said the team is yet to discuss the incident. Vasseur returned to Maranello in between the two races while Leclerc travelled home to be present for the birth of his first child.
“We will have a sit-down,” said Hamilton. “I don’t think everything’s going to get squashed and sorted out in one meeting but it is important. What we build now will put us in the right position for next year.
“In some ways I’m glad we’ve had that experience – of course I would rather we had won and had a one-two – but from that you can learn and you can only really get stronger from that, I think.”
He said the team must find a way to prevent the situation happening again to maximise their chances of winning the world championship.
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“We’ve got these incredible people that are working so hard in the background,” said Hamilton, “of course we’ve been a little bit on the back foot on power this year but the natural car has been phenomenal all year. Great reliability.
“Every day I go out on track I’m always thinking of getting the absolute maximum for them. I don’t always achieve it, and from that you learn.
But I think with years and experience, you understand the bigger picture when you’re getting to work with such a large group of people, and I would say that’s the privilege where the years that I’ve spent here and the teams that I got to work in.
“I really do believe that next year we could be fighting for the world championship. That is the sole goal. So right now, in the background, my focus is on continuing to hold on to the performance we’ve picked up in the last few races in terms of execution and then working on next year’s car.
“I obviously can’t do anything about the engine except for just push them and they’ll continue to push in the background, I believe they are. With the car, it’s steering it, making sure we’re steering it in the right direction and making sure we arrive next year on the right foot.
“And then Fred’s job is to make sure that we are all running in the same direction. Of course we’re all going to race hard, but fair, and make sure that we get the maximum and the best result for the team.”
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