Lewis Hamilton says Formula 1 fans “undervalue” the effort that has gone into Mercedes’ successful 2019 season.
At the last race in Japan, the German manufacturer secured a record-equalling sixth straight Constructors’ title, while the Briton could take a sixth Drivers’ Championship this weekend in Mexico.
All the damage was done in the first half of this year, with Mercedes winning 10 of the first 12 races and Hamilton clinching eight of them, but Lewis admits that wouldn’t have been possible without the work done after a tricky pre-season.
“I think every season you’re looking at it… obviously we got to the beginning of the year and people thought we were talking ourselves down and not showing our true performance. In actual fact it was the reality,” he said on Thursday.
“Ferrari had a good car at the beginning, perhaps it just wasn’t working that great earlier on in the season.
“[We were] punching out these performances each weekend in, weekend out for us guys it’s such a hard task and I think people underestimate and undervalue how hard that is.
“Perhaps other athletes would understand because they go to competition after competition, but it’s really hard because people turn on the TV and see a few hours of our weekend but there’s a massive amount of work that goes on obviously in the background.”
As Mercedes has scaled down their 2019 development, Ferrari has pushed on and finally unlocked the potential from testing via an upgrade brought to the Singapore GP.
“I think the races have obviously been stronger and continued, I guess, on from last year but [the competition has] been very, very strong this season,” Hamilton stated.
“[Going forward] it’s really just trying to continue to keep the team motivated, steering them in the right direction – because they can easily go in the wrong direction quite often with these cars nowadays.”