Hamilton: Red Bull will be faster than us in the remaining races

Lewis Hamilton thinks US Grand Prix this season was one of Mercedes’ best races, but doesn’t exaggerate his team’s progress.

Q: You were close to the first win of the season – I suppose you’re happy to be on the front row again?
Lewis Hamilton: It’s great that I was even able to get close to Max Verstappen offensively at some points in the race. In fact, we didn’t know we would be capable of such a speed. I think he set the pace in the first segment, and it was very difficult to keep up with him.

But in the second leg of the race, after periods when there was a safety car on track, I already managed to get close to him, and today we worked great choosing tactics. We acted aggressively and I am very proud of our team. Everyone has done their utmost to receive technical innovations this weekend.

At one point I thought we could stay ahead, but probably the extra set of Medium tires that Red Bull had allowed them could have gone a little faster than we were going.

Q: What do you think of these new products? Do you feel that the car has accelerated? And how could this affect the results of the remaining races?
Lewis Hamilton: To be honest, it’s hard to say right now. I have no doubt that the team knows for sure whether we could add something to our rivals or not. But I’m sure the novelties have helped, and this is a step in the right direction.

Still, the Red Bull car is very fast on the straights. I think with open DRS they are about 35 km/h faster than us. But if we drive behind them and use DRS on the straight, we are only 22 km/h faster. Therefore, overtaking me, he began to accelerate from afar. But I believe even without DRS their advantage is about 8 mph, so on the straights we probably lost at least four tenths of a lap.

Q: Can you tell us in more detail what kind of problem occurred with the brakes before the start of the race?
Lewis Hamilton: Brake problems haunt us all year. They mainly have to do with the distribution of the braking force. When I pedal, the front brakes work unevenly, either the right wheel brakes harder, or the left wheel because they heat up otherwise.

Before the start we saw that the temperature difference was just huge, so the brakes on the left just didn’t work. So the brakes had to be replaced. This year, when we used bigger brake drums, these problems were common, but we are working on a solution.

Q: In Austin you can fight for the win again – is there any certainty that you can win at least one race before the end of the season? And which of the other tracks suits you and your car best?
Lewis Hamilton: I think we have to be realistic. The Red Bull car was the fastest in the championship all year and remains the fastest. You understand that we have ended up in the positions we are in now, after so many races, after all kinds of problems, including those related to reliability.

Without the difficulties that Charles Leclerc and, for example, Sergio Perez had to deal with this weekend, the race could have gone differently and they would have been ahead of us. We would only start from the third row, so it’s nice that we started the race from third position and could fight for the win.

But when we talk about sheer speed, Red Bull’s entire weekend is faster than us. So it was in Austin, so it will be in the remaining three races. If there are no special circumstances, we probably don’t have enough speed to compete with them. But we will do everything in our power and try to increase the speed.

I mean, although Max’s pit stop lasted 11 seconds, after which he was behind Charles, Red Bull had such a speed reserve that they played six seconds, Verstappen was ahead of Charles and I and I finished a few seconds earlier. This suggests that their machine is capable of impressive speed.

And yet there were a lot of positive moments, to be honest, this is one of our best races this season.

Q: Do you have any information about what and how will be organized in Las Vegas next year?
Lewis Hamilton: I don’t know what awaits us there, but I have no doubt that everything will be perfectly arranged. Although I can already say that racing on a city circuit is not as great as here in Austin. City routes are generally inferior to stationary car dreams, especially new ones. But Las Vegas itself and the atmosphere that accompanies the race weekend is likely to be unique.

Q: When we talk about Max’s dominance this season, how would you rate it? Is the “Verstappen era” starting or do you think there is still an opportunity to overtake him next year?
Lewis Hamilton: It’s too early to judge this. If Red Bull continues to dominate at the start of next season, anything is possible. But Ferrari is ahead of qualifying, so it’s enough for the Scuderia to pick up the race pace, and it will be very capable of taking on Red Bull. I think we need to make much greater progress for that. This is much more difficult, but we hope it is still possible to solve this problem.