Hamilton expects power deficit to hurt Ferrari at Silverstone

Lewis Hamilton says Max Verstappen “is going to be a big contender” in the title race as he fears Ferrari might struggle to compete for victory at the British Grand Prix.

Mercedes dominated the first part of the season but Hamilton ended its run of victories with his first win for Ferrari in Barcelona. Verstappen then offered a stern challenge to the Mercedes pair in Austria last weekend, finishing within two seconds of race winner George Russell, and while Hamilton sees Mercedes as tough to beat particularly this weekend, he isn’t ruling out multiple challengers emerging across the remaining 14 rounds.

“I think other than me going into Mercedes’ garage and undoing the bolts!” Hamilton said. “Look, Mercedes is a phenomenal team. You’re seeing them perform at such an amazing level, and it’s really beautiful to see when a team’s fully in synergy. What they’ve brought and what they’ve done this year is mighty, and I think it’s going to take a huge amount for anyone to close them down.

“You’ve seen now also Red Bull have really taken a step. They made a massive step in the last race. So undoubtedly, I imagine Max is going to be a big contender for it, and he’s got the power also to match the Mercedes. So, I anticipate they’re going to be really strong.

“I think as a team, we have to just continue to believe, continue to just stay calm and keep working. We just have to extract everything we can from each weekend, and even, if possible, a little bit more than maybe what performance-wise is possible. And then there are going to be some tracks where it neutralizes a bit, like I would imagine, Budapest might be a little bit of a closer battle because it’s not got long straights. We need more of those sorts of circuits, to be honest.

“But I think it’s also too early. I mean, Kimi [Antonelli] is far ahead. That is still a lot of points ahead, and he pulled some more points ahead in the last race. So that’s why I said it’s a good reality check for us, but it’s not over till it’s over. Every single person is so geed up and pushing as much as they can, so that’s all I can ever ask for.”

Hamilton says the last race showed the power deficit Ferrari faces that could be accentuated at Silverstone.

“Obviously we had some great performances before. The fact is, as you could see in the race, we lose quite a lot of time – I think it’s like four tenths that we lose in a straight line," he said. "It’s hard to recover that through corners.

“I think we’ve got a great car fundamentally, it’s just we’ve just got to continue to work to maximize what we can and get the best results we can, score as many points as we can until we can close that deficit.

“It’s not that I’m not confident. It’s that the fact is we’ve got long straights … The deficit could be twice as big.”