Hamilton: I need to win every race

Lewis Hamilton says he has no intention on competing strategically over the final six races of the Formula 1 world championship despite his healthy 40-point advantage and still feels a ‘need to win every race’.

The reigning F1 world champion produced a vital victory at Singapore Grand Prix, feared to be one of Mercedes’ weaker tracks left on the calendar, to take a significant stride towards a fifth world title.

With Vettel finishing third at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, Hamilton is closing in on the possibility of being able to finish behind his Ferrari rival and still mathematically clinch the title.

But Hamilton isn’t eager on relying on F1 championship calculations and feels winning every race will remain his objective until the 2018 world crown is sealed.

“There’s just no need for me to look at the next races and think I need this and that,” Hamilton said following his Singapore win. “In my mind I need to win every race.

“I arrive wanting to win and there will be weekends where we know we will be comfortably stronger and there will be weekends, like this weekend, where we knew we would be behind but we still had that belief that we can win.

“I want to win every race, that’s the goal. Just not looking at the points. Of course I didn’t think we’d have [a] 40-point [advantage] at this point and it’s nice having that but it’s not the end. Until you say that it’s mathematically impossible, that’s the day I am working towards.”

Hamilton also has faith in Mercedes’ reliability with the British driver suffering just one mechanical retirement in two years.

The F1 world championship leader feels the painful lessons learnt from Mercedes’ double DNF in Austria, with teammate Valtteri Bottas also dropping out of the race with a mechanical problem, should ensure any future issues are avoided.

“I have the most upmost belief in the team,” he said. “I have raced for a long time so I am aware that things can happen, but if you look at our performance this year reliability-wise it’s been not perfect, but really great.

“It has improved from those issues that we’ve had in the past and what’s super encouraging to see is that when we do have those issues we’ve recovered a lot in those scenarios.

“At the end of the year you understand the car more and we’ve got on top of most potential issues. Who knows what is going to happen in these next six races but I can assure you we are going to arrive locked and loaded.”