"I work equally as hard" - Lewis Hamilton claims he is not the team leader at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton claims there is no team leader at Mercedes and that both he and teammate George Russell were working equally towards the success of the team. The Briton reiterated the need to convert the negatives to positives and face challenges as a team.

Speaking ahead of the Spanish GP, Hamilton said:

“Well firstly, I wouldn’t say that I’m the leader. George [Russell] and I work equally as hard together, I would say, to help drive the team and be a part.. row just as hard as everyone else in the team. But yeah, I mean, just always through adversity and challenging times, you always learn more about yourself, how you deal with things, how you reflect on things, how you are able to turn negatives into positives.”

According to the seven-time world champion, both Mercedes drivers were working equally hard towards the team’s progress. Despite the challenging scenarios, Lewis Hamilton believes in beginning to be motivated enough to plow through a tough period.

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Lewis Hamilton believes his past experiences have helped him through the challenging times

Lewis Hamilton believes his past experiences have helped him cope with a challenging period with the team. The seven-time world champion has revealed that he enjoys battling the challenges his team is facing, despite not being able to fight for wins. While the Briton was demotivated during the start of the Spanish GP and wished to retire after clashing with Kevin Magnussen on the opening lap, he was thankful his team didn't let him retire, before going on to finish P5.

Explaining his psyche in the scenarios in the current phase, Hamilton said:

“I wouldn’t say I’ve learned particularly much more that I knew most of the stuff so I will say that past experiences have helped during this phase. And, yeah, I would say to just reassuring just the strength that I know I have mentally, and also just reassuring us that I still love my job, I still love the challenge even if it’s not fighting for wins, I’m still enjoying this battle that we’re having internally in terms of trying to… with the car, I mean, and trying to chase down these other guys.”

Lewis Hamilton is outside the top-5 of the championship for the first time in his F1 career since 2009. The Briton has a record of never finishing outside the top-5 in an F1 championship since his debut in 2007. The lowest he has finished in the drivers’ championship was fifth in 2009.