Hamilton: It’s important that we beat one of the Red Bull cars

Lewis Hamilton is not inclined to exaggerate the theoretical chances of winning Mercedes in Mexico City, but insists he hasn’t had such a fast car all year..

Question In the second race in a row you finished second, but it seems that you were not happy with the tactics chosen by the team. What would you do differently if you had to start over?
Lewis Hamilton: First of all, I’m very happy that I got second place and moved between the Red Bull drivers – I think this is a very important result for us. Thanks to the innovations that the team prepared for the previous stage, we were able to narrow the gap slightly.

Although Red Bull Racing is still faster than us, it’s great that we were able to show the second and third result in qualifying. As for tactics, I meant we could take a gamble and choose an alternate schedule for one of our machines.

My intuition told me that Red Bull started on soft tires, and when everyone removed the thermal covers from the wheels, it became clear that all the cars around us were on Soft, and only we chose Medium. That’s when I realized we might have problems.

Still, there was a long race ahead and I thought maybe the rivals preferred the two pit stop tactics. However, it turned out that the Medium tires do not lose efficiency, so in the end I think the rivals chose the right rubber. But at least I was able to keep up with Red Bull’s pace in the first part, which is very important.

Question During the race you said you are not satisfied with the hard rubber work. Have you considered extending the first stint on a Medium set and then going straight to Soft?
Lewis Hamilton: I’ve told the team several times that my tires are okay, but I think if we extended the first stint Sergio Perez could be ahead of me because he had already been to the pit stop. I think Red Bull could go faster than me.

In general, if I had stayed on track longer, I would have left the pits behind Sergio and not be able to recover.

At the start of the race I had a good fight with rivals in the first two corners, but unfortunately Sergio managed to beat my partner and ended up between two Red Bull cars. In such a situation it is very difficult to choose tactics. I think our tactics were influenced by the fact that Sergio had made his pit stop earlier and was able to overtake me.

Q: And what would you attribute to the positive moments of the weekend? Can you say you haven’t had such a competitive car since the start of the season?
Lewis Hamilton: Yes, we have had many positive experiences this weekend. I agree with the fact that we didn’t have such a fast car all year. For this we have to thank everyone who works from the team with incredible perseverance and who never gives up. I am very happy to be able to get back to this level, because already in the last race we could almost claim the victory.

However, I don’t know yet what to expect from the car in the remaining two stages of the season. I hope I will be able to fight for a high result in Brazil, but that will be seen there.

Q: At one point during the first segment, Red Bull asked Max to add to get away from you. How hard was it to stay behind his car when you were behind him for about two seconds?
Lewis Hamilton: I think the difficulties in the beginning were related to the difference between the rubber compounds. Of course, in the early stages of the race, soft tires made Max go a little faster. I was surprised to see what a steady pace he was able to maintain and I’m sure he didn’t try to run at full power in the early laps, but despite this Red Bull was faster in the first stint.

Towards the end of this segment I gradually started to overtake Max and hoped I could compete with him, but as soon as I got hard tires I had to give up hope.

Q: Do you think you could compete for the race win if you started on soft tires? In that case, why didn’t you do it?

Lewis Hamilton: I think the rivals eventually showed faster speeds. Maybe we could get them closer today than in the previous stages of the season, and if we had started on soft tires we probably would have gone a few tenths faster. But the Red Bull car is very fast on the straights and loses nothing in the corners.
I stayed behind Max, although it wasn’t easy. Compared to us, they had a margin of speed, but we are gradually catching up with them. Even if we started on soft tires I think my gap in the first segment would be about the same. I don’t even know what else we could do.

Probably we could try to get ahead of Max because of an earlier pit stop – if we tried something like that everything would be much more interesting. But I’m just thankful to the team for the progress made as we were still able to get ahead of one of the Red Bull cars. I think this is very important.

Q: What can you say about the toxicity of social networks?
Lewis Hamilton: I believe that social networks have become an increasingly toxic environment over the years. I think this has to end. The issue of mental health is becoming more and more urgent because I know that many people perceive very painfully everything that others say about them.

Thankfully I don’t read anything like that, but I’m sure media platforms definitely need to do more to protect people, especially children and women. But as long as they don’t, I think this cruel practice will continue.