Upbeat Hamilton says Mercedes now following its 'North Star'

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes' crews have been "buzzing" since the team's double podium in Spain and the Briton believes the outfit has found its "North Star" in terms of the development part of its W14 car.

Mercedes rolled out its heavily updated car at the Monaco Grand Prix, but the changes really came into their own at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona last time out, where the performance of the Brackley squad's black arrow took a big step forward.

Ahead of this weekend's round of racing in Montreal, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff suggested that the former championship winning outfit will be battling its Aston Martin and Ferrari opponents more closely at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

But Hamilton is confident that Mercedes can uphold in Canada the momentum it displayed in Barcelona a fortnight ago.

"Yeah, definitely a lot, we've been making progress," he said. "And the car, [after the] last race, we’ve all been buzzing, I think, back at the factory.

"And the whole team has this new energy and kind of feels like we've got a North Star. We know where we're going; we know how to get there.

"Everyone's just churning away and working as hard as possible.

"So, excited to come here. We genuinely don't know whether this track suits our car, and the car’s characteristics, but the weather may change that, and we'll see."

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Hamilton's last win in Formula 1 dates all the way back to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in 2021. But the seven-time world champion is unfazed by the extended victory drought, thanks in part to Mercedes' undeniable progress of late.

"I don't feel any weight," he said. "We've gone through a tough patch and we're kind of, like, on that up. For example, the last race and some of the races, it feels like we've had wins. It's just about perspective.

"Of course, we've not been in first place but there have been many wins in the steps that we've taken. Last race, for us, as a team, to be on the podium with both drivers, that was a win for us. And so we're just focused.

"We know, as I was just saying earlier, that we have that North Star. We know where we need to go. We don't know everything of how to get there but we know that together we can get there if we just keep our heads down and focus on the science.

"The engineering team is fantastic within the organisation. We've got great development team and I honestly think we've got the best development rate, as good if not better than any team in the sport, and so you’ve just got to keep chipping away."

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