As Formula 1 enjoys the first weekend of the summer break, the top drivers ended by rating their first 12 races of 2019.
For Lewis Hamilton, it couldn’t have gone much better with a remarkable eight wins and a massive 62-point lead over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
However, while the platform has well and truly been laid for a sixth championship and third in a row, Hamilton admits it wasn’t perfect.
“I’d say like 8.9, 8.8,” he was quoted by PlanetF1 rating his year out of 10. “If it wasn’t for the last one, the last race [Germany], it would be a little bit higher.
“I think the good thing is always to score yourself a little bit lower so you’ve more to work on.
“For sure, it’s been the best start of the season that I think we’ve ever had as a team and I think it’s one of the best seasons that I’ve had personally to start off, but there are areas that we can continue to work on.
“That’s the great thing about this sport, you know, no matter how many years and days you race there are always areas you can improve on. So let’s see if we can try and up that into the nines or try to get to the tens in the second half of the season.”
As for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, 2019 has fallen well short of expectations with no chance of the championship and the German facing pressure from new teammate Charles Leclerc.
“Five, not happy with the first half,” he stated. “I think I struggled here and there to really get on top of the car. I think we’ve been trying a lot of things so fair enough.
“Obviously we wanted to squeeze out more so you’re always looking for more but I feel I can do a better job in the second half.
“And five is my number, so take five.”
Meanwhile, the final member of the Hungarian GP podium, Max Verstappen, didn’t want to rate in numbers but did say his approach remained the same.
“I hate putting a number on it because it reminds me of school as well, which is not that long ago. I’m always quite critical and I think it always can be better,” he explained.
“I’ll never be satisfied. I think it’s been very positive and I’ve had good results but there are always things to work on.”
