Hamilton wants Mercedes 2019 F1 parts before end of year

Lewis Hamilton is “keeping the pressure” on his Mercedes team to bring forward development parts planned for the 2019 Formula 1 season before the end of the current campaign.

Despite Mercedes’ initial pre-race fears of a struggle in Singapore, Hamilton converted a surprise pole position into victory to extend his advantage over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in the drivers’ championship to 40 points with six races to go.

Searching for extra performance in response to a convincing defeat to rivals Ferrari at Spa, Mercedes already brought forward planned upgrades for Singapore at the Monza round two weeks earlier.

But Hamilton is keen to make the most of an “inspiring energy” within the team by urging the reigning world champions to introduce 2019 concept parts at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix so he can evaluate them on a race weekend.

"I had this meeting with the guys, and if you can see this energy with everyone, it is really - I find it really inspiring," Hamilton said.

"In those meetings I pushed them a lot about next year's car. I know what I need improving for next year’s car because they are working on the design as they need to sign things off for next year’s test already.

"Also I'm saying, 'Can you bring things forward to Abu Dhabi because I want to feel it during the race weekend rather than next year in February or March. When we start testing it is too late, so I am definitely keeping the pressure on these guys.”

2019 will see the latest regulation shake-up take place in the sport, with a revised aerodynamic concept introduced in a bid to improve the quality of racing and help solve F1’s overtaking problem.

Hamilton believes Mercedes has made strides with understanding how to get the best out of its 2018 challenger – the W09 – after some performance struggles earlier in the season.

"We started off the year, I felt great, and then we tailed off and we had some struggles with the understanding of the car and how to utilise the equipment that we had tyre-wise and balance-wise,” he explained.

“We had a couple of so-so races, and then thankfully we found our footing. Generally, we're going from strength to strength as a team in our understanding of the car, how we utilise the tools that we have.

"We are far more comfortable at our job right now. Six races ago we were definitely questioning ourselves, trying to find that bit of magic. But I think we've now figured the car out, we know where we are and we know what we have got to do to add to it.”