Sir Lewis Hamilton has no doubts as to his team’s experience and subsequent resolve in times of adversity as Mercedes walked away from the Imola sprint with no points.
Having qualified in 13th ahead of the sprint for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton ended the 21-lap race in 14th behind the Aston Martin of Sebastian Vettel as neither he nor George Russell were able to mitigate the ground lost on Friday.
The 37-year-old affirmed that a lot of work is going on in Brackley to resolve the performance issues that have seen them struggle to break into the top 10 during competitive sessions this weekend.
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“A lot of work is going on in the background but it is what it is, it’s what we have,” Hamilton told Sky Sports.
“We haven’t got it right this year but everyone’s working as hard as they can to correct it.”
It was put to the seven-time champion by Rachel Brookes that his team had never gone through tribulations such as the ones right now, but he replied: “I disagree,” adding “the team have been through many, many bad years.
“Most of the people that I’m working with have been with this team more than 20 years.”
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The eight-time constructors’ achieved their unprecedented success following a promising year during Hamilton’s first season with them in 2013 during which they were still developing towards the top, so he remains optimistic that they can accomplish a similar gain in performance again.
“It wasn’t the greatest of years in 2013 but we’ve had great years since then, and we stick together, we try to motivate everyone and this is the situation that we are faced with but everyone’s got their heads down,” he explained.
“Everyone’s working as hard as they can. We’re obviously not fighting for the championship but we’re fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year; that’s all we can hope for right now.”
Hamilton’s team-mate Russell finished the race 11th, and he suggested that the race “isn’t long enough” to make the desired progress, adding that, from his vantage point at least, the event was “processional.”