Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas are playing down Formula 1 title talk ahead of this weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix.
The Briton heads to Mexico City looking to become just the second driver in history to become a six-time champion and could do it at the same venue where he won his fourth and fifth crowns.
To do that he would need to outscore his Mercedes teammate by at least 14 points, something he has done that 10 times since the start of 2017.
But in assessing his chances, Hamilton rather played down that stat.
“I mean I don’t remember if in a season I’ve finished 14 points ahead of Valtteri at any point and, if it has, it may have been one race, maybe,” he suggested on Thursday.
“I anticipate it will be a difficult weekend, Valtteri has been strong all year and obviously won the last race so I expect him to be strong this weekend too.
“It doesn’t matter where it’s done, as long as you get it done then that’s what I’m trying to do,” Lewis acknowledged. “I’m fully aware that there are still plenty of points on the table and I have to fully deliver over the next four races.”
As for Bottas, he has offered mixed reactions on the subject, insisting the title isn’t over yet while also admitting Hamilton has been the better man in 2019.
To ensure the fight continues to Austin next weekend the 30-year-old will need to finish no lower than fourth, but he admits it isn’t a strong priority.
“Obviously I’ll try to prevent that happening this weekend, but the approach is the normal one as always,” he said.
“To be at my best, work hard with the team and to find the best set-up, focusing on every single session at the time. That’s it – no magic!
“For sure I need to be lucky but Lewis has been performing well all season long and in all the time I’ve been in the team he hasn’t really had any dips of many races,” he added.
“Let’s see, I don’t want to think about it very much. The situation is what it is and the focus is on this race.”
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During first practice on Friday, Hamilton made a good start by topping the timesheet with Valtteri down in fifth, a combination that would be enough if Lewis also scored the fastest lap.
However, maintaining P1 will be far from easy given Mercedes’ recent poor record in Mexico, something Bottas revealed they have tried to address.
“We have some clues,” he said. “We understood the tyre issues we had last year in the race after we analysed them really well because it’s a unique circuit with a tarmac that is quite different from the other tracks.
“I think we know what we should do and we try to fix it and do better than last year, but it’s impossible to predict. It’s always going to be a question mark which engine is going to perform better at high altitude, but no doubt Ferrari is going to be strong.
“There are so many things that will affect performance this weekend, so we’ll see as we go. From what we’ve seen in Japan, we have a good race car, so let’s see how it goes.”