Lewis Hamilton reckons the step taken by Mercedes from Monaco onward has been helpful for them to retain second in the F1 standings.

Even though they are not close to Red Bull in the F1 standings, Mercedes is doing enough to hold on to second against the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari and now even McLaren. They do have a sizable lead over Aston Martin due to consistent results.

They have adopted for a concept change shedding the zeropod which hasn’t helped to close up on Red Bull, but they are doing well against others. In fact, Hamilton believes that the updates that brought in Monaco, has helped them to be far more consistent.

Despite some low-key qualifying, Mercedes has managed to score decent points in this period. The target now is to finish second in the constructors’ championship, while personally Hamilton is gunning for third in the drivers’ standings where he is just one point behind Fernando Alonso.

“I’ve been incredibly proud of everybody,” said Hamilton. “Everyone has been working insanely hard. We’ve been making big steps. I think our biggest step we took was when we got to Monaco and the car has really progressed a lot since then. We have a better understanding of where to position the car.

“It’s been a lot more consistent, four podiums, top five finishes, which has been great, and generally we’ve been getting solid, great reliability. So, there’s lots and lots of good bits, but the car the balance we still got to work on.

“And we need more downforce as we always do. But I know everyone back to the factory is head down focused on doing that. We’re just massively focused on getting second for the team in the constructors’ and trying to get third,” summed up Hamilton.

Here’s George Russell on set-up issues

Here’s Toto Wolff on bouncing

Here’s news on Frederik Vesti getting FP1 chance