Lewis Hamilton insists he can’t even consider starting to ease off in the Formula 1 title race despite increasing his championship lead at the Singapore GP.
The Mercedes driver eased to a comfortable victory around the streets of Marina Bay as Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel again failed to deliver the expected performance with a bad strategy call leaving him down in third.
It means that with just six races to go, Hamilton has a 40-point lead over the German but he vows not to get ahead of himself.
“We’re really just taking it one race at a time knowing that Ferrari has had quite good pace the last few races,” he said on Sunday.
“Of course it feels great but I’ve been here a long, long time so I know I can’t get ahead of myself, we can’t get ahead of ourselves.
“Still lots of points are available but with this performance and with this focus that we have as a team I truly believe that we can deliver impactful weekends like this for the rest of the season,” he added.
“The approach I have is working really well so I don’t see the point in changing, you just need to keep getting better and better.”
With the perception that it is the Scuderia with the faster car over Mercedes, many believe luck has been a big part with errors by Vettel and interference by the weather two key factors.
“I don’t look at it and think ‘we’ve lucked in’,” Hamilton responded. “When Vettel hit the wall the other day, damaged the car and lost running on the track, that’s not us lucking in.
“I take a lot of pride in not putting myself in those positions.”
While possibly behind in pure performance, the 33-year-old thinks the Brackley-based team has made up the difference in other ways.
“We haven’t brought any upgrades,” he said. “We brought an upgrade to Monza, we didn’t bring an upgrade here.
“Naturally, we’re always working on our understanding on a technical side to try and improve. For example ride height, a few little things we’re just tweaking and trying to maximise from my understanding of the races.
“I think ultimately we are over-delivering. Our car’s true pace is 100 and we’re pulling out 102,” Lewis concluded. “That’s an awesome, feeling.”
