Hamilton hails 'incredible' Mercedes title achievement

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Lewis Hamilton was full of praise for his team after a 1-2 finish in the 2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix was enough to clinch Mercedes' seventh consecutive constructors championship title.

"Seven time champs: that's something I am going to be able to tell my grandchildren one day!" he told the media after his victory over team mate Valtteri Bottas in Sunday's race at Imola.

Last year Mercedes managed to tie Ferrari's record of six back-to-back team titles. But opening up a whopping 253 point lead over Red Bull with just four races remaining this means that they have now taken the place in the F1 record books all for themselves.

Read also: Hamilton wins at Imola, Mercedes clinch Constructors title

"I look at my crew, this team here, and I know all the men and women back at the factory, back in Brackley and Brixworth. They are the unsung heroes," Hamilton insisted.

"They're the ones that have really grafted away and never given up, just continued to push and elevate and innovate.

Hamilton added that no one in the team took their record run of success for granted - and that it never got any easier.

"It is unbelievable," he insisted. "It's unbelievable, and to come back year-on-year - and whilst we have great performance - it's not easy to continue to deliver weekend in, weekend out.

"People watch it and might maybe think we're used to this, but it just always feels like the first with this team, and I think that's because of the spirit.

"So I'm forever, forever grateful to everyone to be a part of it, to be a part of breaking a record like this. No team has done this before."

Hamilton even celebrated his Imola win by taking part in Daniel Ricciardo's post-race 'shoey' celebrations - something he's never done before.

"Three years ago on the podium he goes ‘I will never ever do that, I will never drink it. You can offer but I’ll never do it’," said Ricciardo.

“But he asked for it today and that took me by surprise. 2020 is the year of the strange, though, so it was good fun.”

Last time out in Portimão Hamilton had himself set a new record for all-time Formula 1 career race wins.

And he's on course to clinch his own seventh world championship, which would put him equal with the number of titles won by Michael Schumacher.

Hamilton's lead in the drivers championship is now 85 points over his team mate, meaning that there's a mathematical possibility that the matter could be decided next time out in Turkey.

However Hamilton added a note of caution that there was no guarantee he would be back to try for an eighth title in 2021.

“I don’t even know if I’m going to be here next year," he said. "It’s not a concern for me at the moment.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.