World Champion Lewis Hamilton says there is no point “getting into a negative bubble of worrying” amid Red Bull’s current run of form in Formula 1.
Hamilton held a 14-point lead after triumphing in Spain but Red Bull has won all four races since, with Max Verstappen victorious on three of those occasions.
It means Verstappen enters this weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix with an 18-point advantage while Red Bull heads Mercedes by 40 points.
“They’ve done a great job in these last four races,” said Hamilton on Red Bull.
“It’s been really difficult for us from Monaco, which obviously was a bit of a disaster and then the same for Baku, better at France and better last weekend but they have taken a step ahead of us and so we are just working as hard as we can to see if there’s a way we can close that gap.
“We’re not even halfway through the season so I am still fighting and chasing for this title.
“I don’t really find myself being concerned as such. We are all pushing as much as we can, we would love to have more pace at the moment to be able to really challenge, not only in qualifying but in the race.
“They’re continuing to take steps forward but I can’t get tied up and get into that negative bubble of worrying.
“All I do right now is that I am trying to put all the energy into being the best prepared, helping the engineers be best prepared, lots of great conversations and this is the time we come together and we unite and we work as hard as we can to rectify whatever issues we have.
“That’s what we do, that’s why we’re world champions and I have confidence in the team that we can do that.”
Mercedes indicated last weekend that it was unlikely to upgrade its W12 but have since clarified that further development components are still to be applied.
“I mean I knew that we had that upgrade coming,” he said. “At the end of the day, everyone is working absolutely flat out.
“We are learning more and more about this car, we are discovering where we need to push more and extract more, and I have all the confidence in the team that we will do over the course of time.”
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