Lewis Hamilton Seeks to Pressure Antonelli and Mercedes at Hungary

Lewis Hamilton is looking to capitalize on his strong record at the Hungarian Grand Prix to put pressure on championship leader Kimi Antonelli and the Mercedes team. With eight victories at the Hungaroring, it stands as his most successful track outside of his home race in Britain. Hamilton believes his Ferrari has the potential to challenge Mercedes, especially on a circuit where cornering prowess often outweighs raw power.

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I think we’ve got a car that can compete. Mercedes is still the car to beat, and they won’t be easy to beat this weekend, but I do think we’ve made subtle progress. Hopefully we can be fighting with them this weekend.

"I think we’ve got a car that can compete. Mercedes is still the car to beat, and they won’t be easy to beat this weekend, but I do think we’ve made subtle progress. Hopefully we can be fighting with them this weekend," Hamilton stated Thursday. This event marks the last race before Formula 1's annual summer recess, with the season resuming on August 23rd at the Dutch Grand Prix.

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Still a lot of work to do, still a mountain to climb in the second half of the season, but I’m more focused than ever and really believe that we can fight.

The recent Belgian Grand Prix saw Antonelli extend his championship lead to 45 points over Hamilton and 50 over teammate George Russell. The race was marred by an incident where Hamilton sent Russell spinning off track on the opening lap. Russell expressed his frustration over team radio, questioning a sudden loss of speed that allowed Hamilton to pass him, forcing a risky overtake. Mercedes is investigating the issue, which Russell attributed to a "software bug" that the team now claims to have fixed.

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Sometimes, yes. Again, at a track like Spa or a track like Silverstone, it’s going to be worse.

Formula 1's mid-season break offers a chance for teams to regroup. The Hungarian Grand Prix is expected to be a more traditional race compared to Belgium, which highlighted issues with energy deployment and algorithms controlling power usage. Tracks with shorter straights, like Hungary, are less likely to amplify such electronic quirks. Oscar Piastri of McLaren noted that while drivers can feel like passengers at times due to these systems, Hungary should present fewer problems. The circuit's layout, however, traditionally leads to processional races with limited overtaking opportunities.

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Here, I really don’t expect there to be many problems at all with that kind of thing, because the straights are so much shorter, so even if there are differences, they should be a lot less. But the principle of driving a race car that loses effectively half of its power before the end of the straight is hard to get your head around sometimes.