Lewis Hamilton has suggested Alex Albon’s lack of pace could be contributing towards Mercedes’ ongoing dominance.
On Sunday, the six-time world champion claimed his fifth win in just seven races this season at the Belgian Grand Prix, opening up a 47-point lead over Max Verstappen at the top of the Drivers’ standings in the process.
His commanding tour de force at the front once again highlighted that when Mercedes get it right, they should finish one-two each time, as they just for just the second time in 2020 at Spa-Francorchamps.
Although Hamilton also acknowledged the continued success of the Brackley-based team isn’t popular with everyone.
“I know it’s not necessarily what everyone always wants to see, Mercedes at the front,” he told Sky Sports. “But no matter how much success we have we just keep our heads down.
“When I go back into the office there will be no guys celebrating, they will be thinking ‘okay, how can we win the next race?’
“It’s an incredible mentality and environment to work in, we continue to learn about ourselves and how we improve weekend in weekend out.
“It’s crazy to think I’m 35 turning towards 36 and I feel better than ever.”
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One thing though that Hamilton does feel could be stopping Verstappen and Red Bull from putting up a stronger fight is the Dutchman not having a strong enough teammate in Albon to back him up.
“What you have got to look at with the Red Bulls is that they do have a very good car,” he told the British broadcaster.
“People downplay it but they have got a very strong car and Max is doing a great job with it.
“Unfortunately both drivers aren’t there like me and Valtteri [Bottas] are there.
“That makes it harder for them. I’ve experienced that myself many years ago when I was at McLaren and I was the driver always at the front.
“I didn’t have the teammate backing up so you equally don’t get the constructors’ points but then you also can’t play strategy on the cars you are racing again.
“So Red Bull have that and Max is sort of there on his own.
“Of course I really really want to have more of a fight, but that’s not on me and I’ve just got to keep on what I’m doing.”
Sunday was a perfect example of what Hamilton was getting at as, instead of clearing the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo ahead of him, Albon ended up losing out in a race-long duel with Esteban Ocon.
“Maybe the mediums wasn’t the right choice,” the UK-born Thai driver said of being the only driver to use the two softest compounds in the race.
“I don’t know to be honest. I think I was feeling pretty good on the soft. Obviously, like we said before the start of the race, the Renault’s would be hard to overtake. I think with DRS, you are just staying the same as them so it was pretty tricky to do anything.
“We pitted for mediums, it was okay but again, just tried to do overtakes and had to push as much as I could through sector two to stay close enough to get the run down to turn five. It was frustrating, I think the tyres just dropped off.
“It was our decision. Obviously, we didn’t expect as much degradation as we got.”
