Hamilton: Mercedes’ winless start to F1 2018 a “learning process”

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes failure to win a race in the opening three rounds of the 2018 Formula 1 season is acting as a “learning process” for the team.

Mercedes heads into this weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix without a victory so far in 2018, marking the longest winless streak the German manufacturer has endured during the V6 hybrid era. 

The reigning world champions looked set to make a victorious start to the new campaign as Hamilton opened up a comfortable buffer during the opening stint in Australia after storming to pole, but a timing error under a Virtual Safety Car period cost him the win.

Hamilton was hit with a five-place grid penalty in Bahrain for changing his gearbox and recovered to third, while Sebastian Vettel held off Valtteri Bottas’ late charge to deny the Silver Arrows once more. A Red Bull strategy gamble then enabled Daniel Ricciardo to score his first win of the year ahead of Bottas in China.

When asked if he was concerned by the fact he is yet to win a race this season, Hamilton replied: “Nope because it’s a learning experience. Of course we would have loved to have won races until now but it’s been a learning process understanding the tyres, understanding the car, understanding the competition. 

“Before you get to the first race it’s all about trying to hit the ground running but it’s also a good feeler, the first four races are a good feeler for how things stand. We already know it’s a three-way battle. It’s definitely not going to be easy, so it requires a lot of work in the background on race weekends to make sure we are at our best.” 

But Hamilton, who trails early championship leader Vettel by nine points, insists Mercedes remains positive about its chances in 2018 and says the team is relishing the prospect of a three-way title battle. 

“It’s a challenge that we all relish. Believe me when I tell you that every single person in the team is hyped up. When we finish weekends and we haven’t delivered the way we feel we should have, for sure it’s not a great feeling.

“This team doesn’t take it as a negative, we take it as an opportunity to grow and extract more from ourselves. It’s interesting from the meetings we’ve had, a lot of work has gone in and I’m hoping naturally when we come to this weekend but we know it’s going to be close.

“The Ferrari’s completely out-performed us in the last race. Considering the performance we had last race and to see our points position, it shows the foundations of this team are still rock-solid. Whilst we’ve had a couple of small blockers in the way, to correct those will not be easily but with hard work we can do it.”