Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton: No-one won the title in a Marussia

Lewis Hamilton says the advantage enjoyed by Mercedes should not detract from his performances as he chases a second consecutive drivers’ championship.

Having won the 2014 title, Hamilton got his defence off to the perfect start with victory in the Australian Grand Prix ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg. While Sebastian Vettel’s place among the greats was often debated due to the advantage of his Red Bull during his run of four consecutive championships, Hamilton doesn't believe his performances should be underestimated despite the two Mercedes finishing over half a minute clear of third place in Melbourne.

“There has never been a driver that has won the championship that hasn’t had a great car that year, as far as I’m aware,” Hamilton said. “There’s no-one who had a Marussia and won the world championship, is there?

“[Juan Manuel] Fangio still had a great car. It’s the name of the game. You’ve got to have great equipment as well. I’ve got the car now and I’m driving the way I am and executing it.”

And Hamilton says he is having to perform better than Vettel did due to the pressure being applied on him by team-mate Rosberg.

“I was sitting next to Sebastian after the race [in Australia] and I said ‘Sebastian, you did this for four years, you were 30 second ahead for four years,’ so I know how it must have felt back then. Back then he had no-one behind pushing him. At least I’ve got my team-mate, who I was really racing. I don’t remember that ever being the case [with Red Bull].”

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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.