Hamilton reveals what he learned following Verstappen in US GP

The seven-time world champion shadowed Verstappen for the first six laps of last Saturday’s sprint race, while he also ran within a couple of seconds of the Red Bull driver in the closing stages of the grand prix itself. 

Hamilton finished just 2.2 seconds behind Verstappen but was later disqualified from second place when his car was found to have excessive plank wear. 

Nevertheless, getting within touching distance of Verstappen’s Red Bull proved to be a useful exercise for Hamilton. 

“I think the only places that we are probably on a level with them is in the low speed,” Hamilton said when asked what he learned from the RB19 ahead of this weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix. 

“Our car has generally been good in low speed over the past couple years. But the higher the speed you go, the more the separation of them. That's why you see them so quick at places like Suzuka.

“It was a good experience, it's always a good experience to be behind them. Because you can see firsthand where the car is stronger.

“They can get on the power earlier than most of us. The car moves a lot less, the degradation of the rear tyres is much, much easier to manage. I've been in that position before, where I've had a much more stable rear end.

“It's so much easier to keep the temperatures lower on the tyre and go longer. They've just done a better job in that space where they have a more stable platform to which it's much, much easier to drive for Max.

“So that's why, when you see him get out the car, he is not even sweating! He generally isn't sweating.”

Buoyed by Mercedes’ strongest showing of a difficult 2023 campaign, Hamilton insisted it is “inevitable” his team will catch Red Bull “at some point”

“We were very close, I could almost taste it in the last one,” he added. “I think had we got the strategy right, I would have been a lot closer to having that win.

“But doesn't matter anyway, because we would have been thrown out. I can't really recall how much I miss it. It's been a couple of years.

“I've enjoyed the process and the journey that I've been on with my team in terms of trying to get the car back to where we need to be. Naturally at the end of the season you're going to get a bit closer when they're standing still, they're not developing, they haven't been developing for ages.

“So it's inevitable, we're going to catch them, we were going to catch them at some point. The key is to try and make sure we're not 1.5 seconds slower at race one again.”