Lewis Hamilton admits the performance of himself and Mercedes has exceeded any previous season in Formula 1.
The Briton has been fortunate with a car that has been the clear benchmark over the rest of the field, as Ferrari and Red Bull have struggled with downforce and tyre issues.
But while that obviously helps, doing the job remains important and Hamilton concedes results-wise he has never done better.
“I think my first season was pretty strong, the first nine races I was on the podium so I think that was pretty strong in my first season,” he said to Crash.net. “But since then I don’t recognise another season as being as strong.
“Of course having the seven wins, I think in the McLaren days the most I had in a year was five wins and over all the years here I think the most we’ve had is 10 win in a season, but never seven in the first 10.
“So it is an outlier and something we’re really proud of but we have to keep our heads down and keep pushing. Generally, we do get stronger as the year goes on and I do as a driver.”
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That is a worrying sign, particularly for teammate Valtteri Bottas who already sits 39 points behind the five-time, who went on to point out one area in particular for improvement.
“Qualifying is still not perfect yet so I have to work on that but in general race pace has been really strong and something I am really happy with,” he said.
“Bit by bit I am understanding the car more and more which I would anticipate moving forward.
“I take the approach I’ve had all my career by taking it one race at a time. I don’t find that difficult at all and there are always things to learn from races even when we were really strong.”