Lewis Hamilton says that Mercedes has been digging in deep and forced to over-deliver on race weekends to fend off Ferrari's mighty challenge.
Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, and their respective teams, have been trading places at the top of the standings in 2018, with the Scuderia and the German driver having the upper hand over their Silver Arrows rival early on in the season.
However, helped by Vettel's mistake at Hockenheim and the Italian outfit's relative underperformance in Hungary, Mercedes and Hamilton put together a string of good results to recapture the lead in both the Drivers' and Constructors' standings.
Ferrari's ongoing development pace and the indisputable progress of its power unit have nevertheless put its SF70-H ahead of Mercedes' W09, according to Hamilton.
"We are racing a team that is faster than us this year," he says, according to the official F1 website.
"Last year we were quite balanced, as there were some weekends they were faster than us and some weekends we were faster than them.
"But this year it is swinging more in their direction," he admits.
"We are having to over-deliver on race weekends and pull out more on weekends where we are not quick enough.
"The pressure to extract every millimetre of every ounce is greater than ever if I want to be number one at the end."
Hamilton and Vettel are both fighting for a fifth world title, an achievement that would put either man on the same level as the great Juan Manuel Fangio.
Last year's fierce battle between the two men saw Vettel and Ferrari fall off a cliff following a series of costly errors by both team and driver.
Hamilton believes that once again there will be no margin for error when the action resumes at Spa at the end of the month, and the pressure ramps up.
"Ultimately last year we reached just as high in terms of pressure at some point, it is just that this year it is even closer than last year as you know, so the smallest mistakes are even more costly," he says.
"Then there is more pressure. That is the same for any sport if you know the last shot or last serve is the most important point it is the most intense battle."
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