Lewis Hamilton believes his title-winning W11 is the “best car” Mercedes has ever built, perhaps even the best F1 has ever seen.
Last time out at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton led home Valtteri Bottas in a Mercedes 1-2 to wrap up the Constructors’ Championship with four races to spare.
The result also meant only Mercedes can win the Drivers’ Championship with Hamilton leading Bottas by 85 points with a maximum of 104 still in play.
While Sunday’s Constructors’ success was a new record for the most successive teams’ titles in F1 history, beating Ferrari’s six from 1999 to 2004, should Hamilton win the Drivers’, he will equal Michael Schumacher’s record for the most-ever Drivers’ titles.
The Brit says it is not a “coincidence”, rather it has been a lot of hard work from an “incredible” group of people.
“What we have done is no coincidence,” he told Sky F1.
“Valtteri (Bottas) and I are just a part of this incredible chain of people who are collectively working and all rowing in the same direction.
“People will probably want to understand how we do it and I think it’s just continuing to set ridiculously high goals every year.
“When it comes to the car, I remember we sat down in 2013 [when Hamilton joined] and I would always sit and speak to the guys on aero and talk about where our target is.
“There would be a dot and I’d say ‘well move that even higher’. And they were like, ‘yeah you’re right, let’s move it higher’.
“And they just continued to do that year on year on year and raise that target that it’s so far out of reach, but if we work towards getting there maybe we’ll get there.
“That’s what we’ve done every year.”
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Next Sunday in Turkey he’s chasing another record, the most wins with one team, 73.
Winning his first grand prix with Mercedes in 2013 in Hungary, Hamilton added 11 the following season, a tally he matched in 2018 and again in 2019.
The record for the most wins in one season is 13 with Hamilton needing to win the final four races of this campaign to equal that.
Given that he believes the W11 is Mercedes “best car” ever, perhaps that’s another record that awaits the 35-year-old.
“The whole car collectively, for sure, is the best car that we’ve built,” he said.
“I think probably it will be the best car that we’ll ever have, I think, probably in the sport.”
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