German GP | Hamilton: Leclerc is the one to watch out for
Lewis Hamilton is heading to German Grand Prix with the leading of the drivers championship, as he reflects at his first half of the season and the current situation of his main rivals.
Hamilton is the actual leader of the championship as he continues his road to the sixth Formula 1 world title. Mercedes' driver is speaking as a team leader as he look back to the beginning of 2019 season: "I don't recognize any other start of the season so strong as this one. Never had 8 consecutive victory with the team at the beginning of the season. I'm not a liar, it is definitely something we are really proud of, we just gotta keep ahead and keep pushing. I’m generally happy to what we are doing as a team and as a driver", he said.
“I just take one race at the time, there are always things to learn from races, even if last one was pretty strong for us but there are still things that are not perfect yet like qualifying. We are gonna work on that, but generally race pace is strong and it is something we are really happy with. Coming here for example it's very hot and it’s not so easy for us, like Austria. It's gonna be a challenge and that's great. But if next races are this hot, we are going to be on trouble”, Hamilton stated.
As a Mercedes driver, he spoke about the risk of losing German GP: “I think it's a shame, I think Germany is a good race for us. I still think it's part of the heritage of the what Formula 1 is, it’s one of those elements that I think we need to keep. Germany has got a lot of good tracks, one of my favourite was the original one they had here in Hockenheim. I grew up playing it in the videogames and then they changed it. There are a lot of great tracks here, I think German GP should be part of calendar."
That #Motorsport125 look!! 😍
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) July 25, 2019
Our W10s will feature a special livery for the #GermanGP - paying homage to the design of classic @MercedesBenz racing cars of the past
Before the legend of the Silver Arrows, Mercedes cars raced in white - the national racing colour of Germany! ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ccuiTRFzpK
So, does Hamilton thinks that there is something broken on Vettel after his crash here last year? “I don’t know, I don’t think about it that much. I don't think it's particularly that race or another race. I don’t think anything particularly happened to him, I think it’s him and the team that struggled in a few races. And now he’s got a new youngster next to him who is doing a great job as well. So it doesn’t appear to be easy sometimes, but he is still is a four time world champion, we need to keep the respect there. But I don’t think Vettel is actually my main opponent for the title as he’s not in second place."
And speaking about opponents, the last two races saw new stars shining with Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc showing impressive performances. Hamilton thinks they will be a big deal to fight with during the second half of the season: “You see a big step from Red Bull, they’ve really taken a leap forward with the new Power Unit this year and it’s pretty quick. Max is not a youngster anymore, he's young but he’s been here for 5 years. Charles is only in his second season so he’s gonna get stronger and we already saw some great performance already, so he particularly is the one to watch out for. Whether not Ferrari may pick up the pace, I don’t know, they had some ups and downs. I mean last year it was close between the three top teams. I hope it gets closer to the end. I’m always ready, I think we are a pretty strong team and we work so well, we are the best team work that there is here”.
