Hamilton: Mercedes W11 the best F1 car the team has produced

Lewis Hamilton believes the Mercedes W11 is the best Formula 1 car the team has ever produced because it is “more refined” than its predecessors. 

The six-times F1 world champion says Mercedes successfully achieved its aims of improving upon its 2019 car design that claimed 15 victories from the 21 races that took place last season. 

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff famously labelled its 2017 title-winning W08 as a “diva” due to its fast but inconsistent nature, but the team has worked to iron out such flaws in its most recent car philosophies. 

"I don't think there's ever been a car that I've driven that's been easy to get into working," Hamilton said ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix. 

"Because the conditions are always different, corners are always different. There are corners that it works well in, and corners that it doesn't. And that never changes.

"There have been a couple of cars in the past that have been - I think Toto [Wolff] mentioned one being a 'diva' which was not the word that I particularly had used - but you know, it was a real handful the majority of the time.

"This one's more refined. We really worked hard last year, in really being clear and concise in picking out what the issues were with the '19 car and what we wanted to do moving forwards.

"And that just continues to come from the great communication that we have as drivers with the team, with the engineers, the understanding we have with the terminology we use, and the team really take that in, and then have implemented that into the car today.

"But we've only been to one track. It's still not easy to get the lap out of the car, but I think that's F1 in general. But it is the best car that we've had so far.”

Mercedes teammate and world championship leader Valtteri Bottas echoed Hamilton’s comments but insisted the German manufacturer is still learning about its latest challenger. 

"I think we've started the season in a very decent way in terms of understanding the car and for sure," he said. 

"We learned a lot for example between the first two race weekends and even the second week, at the same track, we were still discovering things.

"It's obviously too early to say, it's been only really one proper track with this package, so we'll find out. But I have a feeling things started in the right way. And for now, there's been no massive drama."