Hamilton "really proud" of start to F1 2019 after seven wins in 10; Will Mercedes have a battle with Ferrari and Red Bull at German GP?
Friday 26 July 2019 09:50, UK
Lewis Hamilton believes he is enjoying his strongest-ever season of Formula 1 - but says he is all up for 2019 closing right up.
Hamilton heads into this week's German GP, the second-last race before the summer break, boasting the best record of his career at this stage of a season - seven wins from 10 races and a 39-point championship lead.
"My first season was pretty strong... but since then, I don't recognise another season being as strong as this one," said the five-time world champion at Hockenheim, a race he won from 14th on the grid in 2018.
"Of course, having the seven wins... I was just reminiscing about my McLaren days and I think the most I had in a year was five wins.
"Over all the years here, I think we've maybe had 10 in a season but never seven in the first 10, so it definitely is an outlier and something we are really proud of."
Hamilton is the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2004 to win this many races after the season's opening 10 grands prix. Schumacher finished that season - which only ran to 18 events, compared to this year's 21 - with 13 wins, which remains an F1 record for a single campaign.
Yet, despite his scintillating form, Hamilton insisted on Thursday: "We've just got to keep our head down and keep pushing. We generally do as a team get stronger as we go through the year, and as a driver."
In fact, Hamilton cited qualifying as one area he can improve upon. Unusually, the Englishman's seven wins have come from just three pole positions. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas leads that particular table in 2019 with four poles.
"There are always things you can learn from these races, even though the last one was pretty strong, but there are still areas that can be better," added Hamilton. "For example, qualifying is still not perfect yet. So I've got to work on that. But in general the race pace has been really strong and something I've been happy with."
Will Mercedes have a Hockenheim battle?
After enduring an aberration in Austria by their lofty standards, Mercedes hit back in style at Silverstone a fortnight ago with Hamilton heading Bottas in their seventh one-two of the year.
Behind the Silver Arrows, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Red Bull's Max Verstappen lit up the race with a string of thrillingly close but clean wheel-to-wheel battles and Hamilton "absolutely "expects the two 21-year-olds to get stronger - progress he hopes their respective teams can replicate.
"You have seen a big step for Red Bull, they have really taken a leap forward with their power unit this year and it's really great to see. They are only going to go from strength to strength," enthused Hamilton.
"Max is not a youngster necessarily in the sport anymore. Whilst he's young, he's been here for a few years. Charles is only in his second season, so he's got a lot of growing that he will experience and I can only see him getting stronger. We're already seeing some great performances from him.
"Whether or not Ferrari are going to pick up their pace - I don't know, they're kind of up and down. Last year here it was quite close between all three of us, Ferrari were slightly quicker, but I hope it gets closer through the year."
F1 has arrived in central Germany to intense temperatures with 40 degrees reported in the paddock on Thursday - and similar expected for Friday's pracrice sessions.
However, Saturday and Sunday are not only set to be cooler but come with the threat of rain showers. Hamilton welcomes that prospect after Mercedes' cars badly overheated in Austria, when he finished fifth.
"It is definitely a good thing if it rains!" he added. "There's not really much we can do: it's a much bigger design issue that we have when it gets hot. So it's not so easy to change it. We are working towards it but it's very small steos.
"I imagine if it stays this hot, we'll be in trouble. If the next race is this hot, we're going to be in trouble. Just on the edge, as we were in Austria. But fingers crossed."
Friday, July 26
9.45am: German GP Practice One build-up
10am: German GP Practice One (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event until 11am)
1.45pm: German GP Practice Two build-up
2pm: German GP Practice Two
4pm: German GP: The Story So Far
Saturday, July 27
10.45am: German GP Practice Three build-up
11am: German GP Practice Three
1pm: German GP Qualifying build-up
2pm: GERMAN GP QUALIFYING (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
4.30pm: The F1 Show (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
7.30pm: IndyCar Mid-Ohio Qualifying
Sunday, July 28
11.20am: Porsche Supercup
12.30pm: German GP: Pit Lane Live (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
1.30pm: German GP: On The Grid (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
2.10pm: THE GERMAN GRAND PRIX LIVE! (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
4pm: German GP Paddock Live (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
5pm: German GP: The Notebook (Simulcast on Sky Sports Main Event)
5.30pm: German GP Highlights (Simulcast on Sky One)
6.30pm: German GP Race Replay
8.30pm: IndyCar Mid-Ohio Race
Watch the German GP live only on Sky Sports this weekend. Find out more here to watch the 2019 season live
