Lewis Hamilton’s fight with Max Verstappen in the United States Grand Prix has boosted his confidence that Mercedes can compete for the world championship next year.
Verstappen won by more than five seconds after passing Hamilton with six laps to go. Despite seeing the team’s win-less streak continue, Hamilton was encouraged by how close they came to victory.
“What I’ll take from today is that we had good pace, I am still here, and I know that when they build the car, I will take it to the top. We’ve just to keep on working,” he told Sky.
Mercedes brought several upgrades for their car this weekend, not all of which were used during the race, which helped the team further close the deficit to the front runners.
“I would like to say a big thankyou to my team,” said Hamilton. “Everyone back at the factory is working so hard and it has been such a trying year for everyone.
“We came here with upgrades, they worked so hard to bring those upgrades in and it really had an effect so we were closer today. I am really proud of everybody. Sorry I couldn’t get the win, I gave it absolutely everything.”
The fight for victory between the pair did not last long. Once Verstappen caught Hamilton he quickly passed the Mercedes in a DRS zone.
“We were in the lead and I could see he was closing a second per lap and I couldn’t really answer it,” said Hamilton.
“He came from so far back on the straight, I think they are like 10kph faster than us on the straights. And at the end of the straight our mirrors are vibrating so much that I couldn’t see where he was so it was difficult to defend.”
While Red Bull clinched the constructors championship today, Mercedes have an outside chance of beating Ferrari to second in the standings. Hamilton said he “cannot put in words how much it would mean to the team” to do that, “especially with everything that is going on and everything that has happened in the last race last year, what happened this year in terms of our car performance and what’s happened with all the news and everything.
“To get a win would have been a huge triumph for us all and hugely rewarding.”
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2022 United States Grand Prix
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