‘It’s game on,’ says Hamilton as Mercedes seek more wins

Budapest: Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes teammate George Russell will be fighting to win and hope to deliver a sustained ‘silver arrows’ resurgence through the second half of the season, the seven-time champion said on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference ahead of this weekend’s Hungarian Grand Prix where he seeks a record-extending ninth victory, Hamilton, 39, said: “It’s game on.

“We’re fighting for wins and we’re chasing — and we’re going to try and win as many races as George (Russell) has mentioned or to compete for as many wins as possible.

“It might turn out this weekend that the Red Bull is still light years ahead or that McLaren is still there this weekend. Who knows?

“But I think what we’ve shown over the last few races is that with determination, with real focus and by persistently chasing for perfection, and improvement, you can make a difference.

“And, so, we are united as a team and we’re going to try and make sure that we can end the season on a high.”

Hamilton added: “And if we can lift the team up in the ladder of constructors ... if we can progress — and we’re not too far off the drivers up ahead of us — then that would be great.”

Fresh from his emotional and long-awaited record ninth victory at the British Grand Prix, and the record 104th of his career, Hamilton was in upbeat mood at the Hungaroring, one of his favourite circuits, where he has won eight times and claimed his most recent pole position last year.

Russell, 26, who won in Austria a week before Hamilton’s Silverstone triumph, hopes to see the team extend their winning streak by completing a hat-trick on Sunday — and then going on to continue winning races for the rest of the year.

“Our goal for the rest of the year is to win as many more races as we can — and if we can have good weekends here and in Spa (Belgium) next weekend, then I’m sure we can be fast everywhere,” said Russell.

“We can win more races.”

Upgrade package

Max Verstappen hopes that a new Red Bull upgrade package will give him momentum as he seeks increased pace in a bid to stay ahead in this year’s title race.

“We brought some stuff before, but it was not particularly big, so this one is a bigger one and it is a very important weekend,” said the series leader and three-time world champion who seeks to complete a Hungarian hat-trick this weekend.

“I think for everyone, this is an important, important weekend.”

The 26-year-old explained that he felt the team needed to step up the pace to boost their defence of both the drivers’ and constructors’ titles.

“You could say that,” the Dutch driver said.

“I think so. If this is not giving us some good lap time, I don’t know how the rest of the season is going to evolve, but at the same time, I also don’t know what’s coming from the other teams.

“So we just focus on ourselves. We are bringing some things to the car and of course, I hope that it will give us a bit of lap time.”

For his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez, this is another key weekend to prove he can recover his form and deliver podium finishes.

While Red Bull fitted upgrades to their cars, McLaren were forced to close their ‘Team Hub’ multi-storey motor home in the paddock following a storm on Wednesday.

The facility was left flooded in places only weeks after it was damaged at the Spanish Grand Prix by an electrical fire.

“The team are currently working to fix the damage and therefore unfortunately our Team Hub will not be open to any guests or media for the duration of the Hungarian GP,” said a team statement.

In Spain and Austria, when the facility was out of action, team chief Zak Brown used the FIA’s hospitality area as his base while drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri used other McLaren facilities.

English driver Norris arrived in the paddock on Thursday to be greeted by light-hearted references to the European Championship soccer final which he attended in Berlin last Sunday.

A message on his car parking space board read ‘2-1 Viva Espana’ in reference to Spain’s Euro 2024 final win over England.

Two-time champion Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin told reporters he was not responsible, pointing out “there is another Spaniard” before it was revealed that the joke was the work of Carlos Sainz’s manager Carlos Onoro.