Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes have the “strongest team” in Formula 1, with himself and George Russell “punching out great results”.
Hamilton’s comments came after the seven-time World Champion finished second at last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, whilst Russell claimed third to secure a Mercedes double podium.
Russell’s recovery from 12th on the grid secured the team’s first double podium since last season’s Brazilian Grand Prix, where the 25-year-old achieved his maiden F1 win.
Mercedes certainly looked much stronger at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with the new concept having seemingly passed its first real test.
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The performance has given Hamilton hope that they can be “good elsewhere”, with the 38-year-old wanting to be back amongst the frontrunners permanently.
“As long as I’ve been racing here, if you are quick here, you should be good elsewhere,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 following his rostrum.
“But I think the way these cars work, they’re a bit of a narrow working window. So I think there’ll be tracks where it’s not so great maybe but I’m hoping that it’s not the case, I’m hoping that we’re this strong every weekend.”
Hamilton was full of praise for his team-mate after the Spanish GP, given that he was eliminated in Q2.
Russell showed great race pace to fight his way through the field, ahead of the likes of Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton doesn’t think anybody could’ve done a better job in Spain, with him hoping that everybody felt “proud of themselves”.
“George did a fantastic job coming from 12th all the way to third, great points for the team,” Hamilton added.
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“I just hope that everybody at the factory back home this weekend feels proud of themselves for the amazing work that they’re doing, for the step that we’ve been able to take this weekend, and last weekend.
“Mega points for the team, we’ve got into second in the Constructors’ Championship so I think we have the strongest team, particularly George and I are punching out great results weekend-in, weekend-out so now we just need to pick up the performance a little bit more, which I know everyone’s working hard to do and, hopefully, we can, at some stage, catch the Red Bulls.
“The car felt great. We’ve definitely got some steps to continue taking to try and close the gap to the Red Bulls, but this is way more than I expected this weekend and I thoroughly enjoyed the race.”