Despite dominance, Hamilton asks why Mercedes isn't 'perfect'

Eight wins out of twelve races so far in 2019 is an outstanding track record, yet Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton wants to know why he missed out on four more victories.

Mercedes' current campaign is a tale of almost total supremacy, with the German outfit securing ten outright triumphs out of twelve races, beaten only by Red Bull's Max Verstappen, and leading the Constructors' standings from Ferrari by a whopping 250 points.

The lion's share of Mercedes' wins has gone to Hamilton who heads the drivers' standings with a comfortable 62-point lead over teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Barring any unforeseen catastrophe, the Briton is clearly on his way to conquering a sixth world title.

• Hamilton hopes young gun challengers 'get closer through the year'

Yet, as he takes stock of the 2019 season, Hamilton isn't focused on what has been achieved, but rather on what has been missed, and why.

"I look at those races and say ‘eight out of 12, there’s still some missing’, so how did we miss those ones, how were we not perfect on those weekends," he asks.

"We’ve also had races where we were fortunate, where Ferrari were quicker, but sometimes through team error, sometimes driver error, which has put them in a position, like in Baku or Bahrain, where they had the car failure, or else they were the ones [that would have won].

"It just shows you how on the edge we all are and you can’t take anything for granted so you’ve just got to keep working at it."

Indeed, complacency is a word often spoken in the Mercedes camp, but only in the context of keeping any sense of security at bay.

"What’s really great in this team is that I don’t think we’re ever complacent," adds Hamilton.

"And even if we sometimes are, it nips us in the bud and we pull back.

"But the majority of the time we don’t get complacent, we always arrive with the same mentality, we’ve had all this success, yet everyone continues to work just as hard, and no-one is better than the other, and we all lift each other up.

"These eight wins in the first half of the season is obviously exceptional.

"If anyone ever talks down upon our success you’ve got to remember how those who have had success will know how hard it is to achieve it even if you do have performance.

"You've still got to arrive and deliver weekend in, weekend out, there’s still two drivers per team, so actual delivery is paramount."

As rock solid as his position at the head of the field appears to be, Hamilton genuinely believes he'll have a few challengers snapping at his heels in the second part of the year.

"I truly believe this second half of the season could be much, much harder for us in the sense that we’ll continue to have this battle.

"Obviously Ferrari have had a good package, have come with a certain philosophy this year that doesn’t work everywhere.

"Red Bull looks like… I don’t know what changes they’ve done to the car but they seem to really have turned it around, the engine’s obviously made a pretty big step for them as well which is great.

"I can tell you we’re not perfect, by far. We've still got areas where we will continue to improve and I’m looking forward to that journey."

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