Lewis Hamilton is expecting a close battle at the top with the Mercedes W15 after his win at the 2024 British Grand Prix. He believes the car has more potential to be unlocked.

Mercedes experienced their worst start to a season in the past decade with the W15 earlier this year. The car was hardly competitive in the top-five and struggled in multiple aspects. While the expectations were extremely low, the Brackley crew worked and developed it in the right direction.

Lewis Hamilton emerged victorious at Silverstone last week; his first win since Saudi Arabia in 2021. It was a second-consecutive win for the team, as George Russell had won the Austrian GP. While the team has made progress, Hamilton said that the W15 is not yet the fastest car on the grid.

However, Lewis Hamilton is expecting more competition with the top teams as they develop further during the season. He said:

“There’s still a long, long way to go,” Race Fans quoted Hamilton. “The car, by no means, is the car the quickest car on the grid right now.””I think we are super close and I think hopefully with the next upgrade perhaps, we will be in an even stronger position to really, really be fighting at the front row more consistently.”

Seemingly, it wasn’t just the car’s performance that led Mercedes to their second win this season.

Lewis Hamilton’s race engineer explains how tyre management helped win 2024 British GP

Silverstone is an extreme track for tyres. The degradation is one of the highest on the entire grid, and with tight and fast corners, it becomes quite a challenge for drivers to push till the end.

Peter ‘Bono’ Bonnington, Lewis Hamilton’s long-time race engineer, revealed how the 39-year-old managed his tyres well enough to push and defend till the end of the race.

“I think it’s the fact that the feedback he was giving me of where we were on the initial stint balance, (the car) wasn’t great,” F1 quoted him. “We knew where we needed to correct the car, and I think we put the car in a real good position for that final stint to allow him to push. You knew the front tyre was going to be weak, so you’ve just got to make sure you’ve got enough front end in there to protect it, and he does a great job.””You know when it comes down to the wire, he’s the one that’s going to manage the tyres and get you to the end.”

As Mercedes starts to battle with the top four teams this season, McLaren have seemingly emerged as the fastest car. Nevertheless, Max Verstappen of Red Bull had quite a battle with Lando Norris during the final stages of the race. He finished P2 while Norris settled for P3 after a slow pit stop.