Hamilton: Mercedes has found its “North Star”

Lewis Hamilton says that Mercedes has found its “North Star” in terms of what direction the development of the W14 Formula 1 car it should take.

The team introduced a major upgrade package in Monaco, and while the full potential was not clear in the principality, the team had a strong weekend in Spain, with Hamilton and team-mate George Russell finishing second and third.

Asked if he had confidence that the momentum would continue in Canada this weekend Hamilton made it clear that he did.

“Yeah, definitely a lot, that 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.”

Asked if not winning for so long was becoming a heavy burden Hamilton insisted that it wasn’t, and suggested that recent progress was the equivalent of race wins.

“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.

Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes-AMG, 2nd position, in Parc Ferme

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“Of course, we've not been in first place but there have been many wins in the steps that we've taken. The 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 about 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 a 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.”