3
Lewis Hamilton says he can't think of another season since his rookie year in Formula 1 in which he has had a stronger start to a campaign.
In the opening ten races of the year, the Briton has won seven, while finishing outside the podium just once in Austria.
The five-time world champion currently leads the drivers' standings ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas, boasting a 39 point lead over the Finn.
MORE: Mercedes unveils commemorative livery for German GP | Russell: 2020 Mercedes seat not on forefront of my mind
Reflecting on his season so far and comparing it to those since 2007, Hamilton fails to see when he started off a year so strongly.
"My first season was pretty strong, the first 11 or 12 races or something I was on the podium," Hamilton stated. "It was pretty strong in my first season, but since then, I don't recognise another season as strong as this one, for sure.
"And having seven wins, I was reminiscing about my McLaren days... I think the most I had in a year was five wins. In all the years here, we've had ten in a season but never seven in the first ten.
"It definitely is an outlier and something we're very proud of. But we've got to keep our head down and keep pushing. We generally do as a team get stronger through the year."
'Easy' not to think about the championship
Hamilton added that he finds it easy not to think about the world championship at an early stage while holding such a significant lead.
"It's really easy, I have the same approach I've had as always - take it one race at a time," Hamilton said. "I don't find that difficult at all and there are always things you can learn from these races.
"Even though the last one was pretty strong, there are still elements [that can be better. For example, qualifying is not perfect yet. I've got to work on that but in general, the race pace has been really strong and I'm really happy with that."
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
67 members have this team as their favourite
Replies (3)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
If only Rosberg had stayed to spice things up a bit...
ajpennypacker
Posts: 2,475
Right... People still complained about the domination back then, but it was actually pretty exciting. The amount of drama for the last two years of the partnership was insane. I just regret that they didn't have more races battling each other. Somehow it always seemed that they took turns being strong. The exceptions to that were spectacular though.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
I didn't necessarily like the dramatic ways the two clashed, especially not off-track, but at the very least that was some competition. There was no obvious 1st driver, since both were so keen on winning. It was still Merc' dominating, and I complained back then and will now when they are pulling away again, but at least they competed inside of the team back then.