26/07/2018
NEWS STORY
While Jacques Villeneuve suggests he has a Hollywood-inspired Messiah complex, Lewis Hamilton insists he is not perfect, though he is working on it.
Fresh from Germany, and what he regards as one of his best ever victories, Hamilton knows that he will be under immense pressure this weekend from Red Bull, on a circuit the RB14 was almost designed for, and Ferrari, a team in mourning for its late president, and Sebastian Vettel seeking to make amends for his Hockenheim horror.
"You don't see us away from the track and that is the most demanding thing," he told reporters in Hungary. "Keeping your mind in the game from March to November, arriving every weekend 100%.
"I can honestly say not every single weekend I have hit the nail on the head and been able to do that," he admitted. "There are parts of my performance this year that are not perfect.
"Last year I was great in qualifying, this year it has been an area I am constantly trying to work on, starts were more consistent last year, there are always areas, there is always something.
"The pressures are huge," he said of the championship fight, which following Vettel's crash in Germany saw the lead swing back in the Briton's favour. "The demands and the desires of myself and Sebastian are higher than ever. The pressure is higher than ever, but I am not fazed by it. I am excited by it.
"I take a lot of pride in being a perfectionist and not making mistakes," he added. "With the pressure we are under, I really work hard to position myself mentally and physically that I am the last to crack. It is not easy but I am happy with where it is right now.
"Last year, I'm sure we reached just as high heights in terms of pressure at some point. It is just that this year it is even closer than last year so the smallest mistakes are even more costly. So there is more pressure on that. We are racing a team that is faster than us this year. Last year, we were quite balanced. There were some weekends, they were faster than us, some weekends we were faster than them.
"This year it is swinging more in their direction, so we are having to over-deliver on weekends and try to pull out more on weekends when we are not quick enough so the pressure to extract every last millimetre is greater than ever if I want to be number one at the end."
Looking ahead to this weekend, he said: "This weekend is going to be the same challenges as every year. We've got the Red Bulls... it is not a power circuit and they are quite often close. Ferrari were quickest here last year. It is probably going to be the same this weekend, we are going to try our hardest to improve on that.
"Maybe tomorrow we will get in the car and we will have great pace, the car will work really well here. This is a really tough track, very hot, the way the corners are laid out has not in the past been good for our car package.
"Our car likes to be on a more open circuit, more high-speed, downforce-dependency corners. This is mostly medium and low-speed, so it will be interesting."
Check out our Thursday gallery from the Hungaroring, here.