Lewis Hamilton says that his championship hopes do not look that great at this point in the season, with the Briton sitting twenty points behind Sebastian Vettel heading into the British Grand Prix, but he knows every race is key and there are likely to be plenty of opportunities to gain ground across the remainder of 2017.
The Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team racer has failed to finish on the podium in three of the past four races, with tyre issues hindering him throughout the whole Monaco Grand Prix weekend, a loose headrest denying him victory in Azerbaijan, and a gearbox penalty in Austria.
But Hamilton knows that one retirement here or there for either himself or Vettel can swing the championship into the other persons favour, and that it is imperative that he makes the best out of any bad situation.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but it doesn’t look great at the moment,” said Hamilton. “And how am I going to turn that [around]? We’ve still got a long way to go, it could easily switch within one race.
“But the bigger that gap gets, the more pressure builds, because then you’re into the next race and something bad happens, or you have a DNF, which is inevitable for many of us.
“I’m sure Sebastian is eventually going to have something, I’m sure Kimi will eventually, I’m sure something may happen on my side also, because I’ve not had it also. It’s generally one a year.
“It [the gap] is not great, but it could be 30, could be 40, or it could be 30-something. I don’t know if it’s damage limitation as such.
“Of course it’s a hit when you get the penalty and you start eighth rather than third, so it does make a difference. But it’s not the end of the world. And we got the points, I got the best points I could.”
