Lewis Hamilton believes a second consecutive season without a retirement is within the reach of his Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport team as he heads into the 2018 season looking for a fifth Formula 1 World Championship.
The Briton finished every race in the points during 2017, becoming the first driver since Michael Schumacher in 2002 to be classified in every race of a championship-winning season, with his only engine penalty coming in the Brazilian Grand Prix, and only after he crashed out of Qualifying.
Hamilton has the belief that Mercedes can complete every lap of the 2018 season despite the reduction of allowable power units from four to three, and the increase of races from twenty to twenty-one.
“We plan on completing every lap, that’s our goal,” said Hamilton on GPUpdate.net. “Of course it’s going to be harder for us to do that, but that’s what we plan to do.
“I have every faith and belief in the team they can do that, it’s a huge, huge task and perhaps [2017] is a golden year for us, but no reason for us [not to repeat it].”
Hamilton feels it will be close between the three major engine suppliers on the grid – Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault Sport – and it will be the odd reliability hiccup that could change the outcome of the championship.
“I think between us, Ferrari and Renault’s engines, the power teams, that’s going to be definitely something that potentially will determine some of the championship,” said Hamilton. “But as I said we plan on finishing every single race.
“We had the best reliability we’ve ever, it’s going to be even harder to achieve what we have achieved, but we work with the same approach we’ve done [in 2017] it’s achievable.”
