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Lewis Hamilton is thrilled with the late-season developments. Although the Briton expected that his team could hardly progress, it turned out that he made a mistake. Lewis is much more optimistic now than a few months ago, and he is especially looking forward to the next season.
Hamilton calls for caution and believes that it is necessary to change a lot if they want to compete for the biggest goals next season. “It definitely gives us a lot of confidence,” Hamilton said. “I mean, last year, at the same time, we were doing the same thing, but last year, I think we were three-tenths behind Max in quali – or something like that, and I came second again but he walked off with it.
So, we're really just mirroring what we did last year. So, we have to make some real big changes for next year. Because obviously, in Bahrain earlier this year, they’re 1.5 seconds a lap faster than us at least. So key is to make sure that's not the case in Bahrain [next year], but I think hopefully these next couple of races will be close.
But I’d probably put money on it that he’d get to 18, 19, with that car”.
When asked if he could have pushed harder during the final stint on medium tires, Hamilton responded:
“Yeah, for sure. I could have pushed a little bit harder but I did at one time try to see, okay, I think I've saved enough, let me see if I can try and close this gap to Max."
Lewis Hamilton is cautious
Given his experiences this season, the Briton knew he had to be careful.
Hamilton seems to be in 'fear' because of everything that has happened to him this season. “I think it was like 10 laps to go, and I did a 22.0 and Max did a 21.9. I was like, ah, I’ll leave it. He was just cruising at 21.9.
So yeah, so I thought I'd leave it there. And also, I had to be cautious, just careful because obviously my tyres… if I really pushed them for the last 10 laps, they probably would have opened up, and who knows, maybe Charles would have caught me up. So, I just had to be cautious with that”.