Lewis Hamilton has issued another rallying cry to Mercedes for a response to the recent losses to Ferrari.
Currently the Brackley-based team is level with their longest losing streak in the hybrid era, having lost the previous three races to the Italian team.
On all occasions, there has often been very little between the two teams, with Hamilton even chasing early Charles Leclerc hard in Singapore before slipping to fourth through strategy.
But it is races like last Sunday at Marina Bay which, in the five-time champion’s mind, epitomised the slight slip Mercedes has made since the summer break.
“Honestly, there’s no point in worrying because what will be will be,” Hamilton told Sky Sports in Sochi about the Ferrari revival.
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“At the moment I would say these last three races we’ve probably not extracted 100 per cent on the weekend and that’s what we need to get back to. Extracting [the] maximum.
“It might make the smallest difference and it just might mean we’re just ahead or just in a better window to get by, who knows, but that’s what we’re going to start targeting.”
The 34-year-old also hoped recent losses would address any sense of complacency that might have crept in during a largely dominant year.
“It’s been a tough start of the second half [of the season] but it’s racing. We’ve enjoyed it, we’ve enjoyed the challenge,” he said.
“Of course, we love winning and we exist to win, so we’re still just massively driven to produce better results. Luckily, we have six races left and six more tries at trying to change the viewpoint and that’s just what we’ll continue to do.
“We’re by no means giving up, that’s not part of our DNA, so we’ll just keep pushing.”
This weekend in Sochi sees Mercedes return to a circuit where they’ve never lost in five visits, but practice on Friday saw both Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc set the pace.
With a little more of a push though, Hamilton is convinced Mercedes is still the team to beat.
“Remaining the leaders is not an easy task at all, so it’s understandable at some stage you’re going to have dips, but I still have 100 per cent confidence in my guys,” Lewis stated.
“We’re still the strongest team and, whilst it’s not been spectacular in the last couple of races, it’s not like we’ve been terrible.”