Hamilton to take title bid one race at a time after resurgent win

Lewis Hamilton isn’t ruling out a bid for an eighth world championship this season after scoring his first win for Ferrari.

Hamilton waited 31 rounds before scoring his first grand prix victory for the famous Italian team, with the win in the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix the culmination of a sharp upturn in form over recent months.

A pair of second-place finishes in Canada and Monaco moved Hamilton to second in the drivers' championship behind Kimi Antonelli, and the teenage title leader’s retirement in Barcelona slashed Hamilton’s deficit to 41 points.

But Hamilton had already seen off Antonelli and Mercedes teammate George Russell in a surprisingly dominant performance helped but not dependent on a well-timed virtual safety car that enabled him to keep the lead while making a third pit stop.

RACE REPORT: Hamilton’s three-stop scorcher nets his first Grand Prix win for Ferrari in Barcelona

Not only was it convincing validation of the major upgrade package Ferrari brought to the weekend in Spain, but Hamilton said it was also a sign that the restructuring of his garage and engineering team is paying off.

“It's been happening over the last few races,” he said. “The changes that I've asked for and pushed for all last year have been made, and I now have the right team around me. I now have the right car around me and now I can start doing what I do best.

“I think it's so early in the season to get to this point. These guys have really listened and really worked hard to add performance and be innovative. This year is all about innovations … and this is what I was asking for last year. I was like, ‘This team has to be the leaders in that,’ and they've shown that they can and they will.”

But the seven-time champion was under no illusions that Mercedes could be beaten easily. Though each team develops its car differently, this is the second major upgrade package from Ferrari this year, whereas Mercedes has made major revisions just once.

“We've got a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. "By no means is this something that's just going to happen all the time. We've got a steep mountain climb up ahead of us to try to do this.

“I've always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. Mercedes have come out of the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace. Both drivers doing such a great job.

“We know we have this power deficit. There's going to be tracks where we go to with long, long straights where that makes it even harder. But as I said, we've got a great car at the core, and if we keep adding performance and we can go through the corners quicker, maybe we can narrow that deficit down a little bit until we close the gap on power.”

The situation was hopeful enough for Hamilton to enter the frame as a title contender, though the Briton insists he isn’t contemplating the championship picture yet.

“With the way that the year started out, I've not really been thinking about it like that – I've not been thinking about an eighth [title],” he said.

“It’s very, very hard to think long term at the moment. I think it's just about taking it one race at a time, one week at a time. We just keep pushing, keep and enjoying it. We have to just have fun with it as well.”