Hamilton: Mercedes has a fight on its hands with Ferrari
By Luke SmithAug 20, 2015, 1:00 PM EDT
Lewis Hamilton believes that Mercedes has a genuine fight on its hands with Ferrari heading into the second half of the 2015 Formula 1 season.
Hamilton currently leads the drivers' championship by 21 points from Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, but remains just 42 clear of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel in third place after the German won last month's Hungarian Grand Prix.
Vettel managed to jump both Hamilton and Rosberg at the start before controlling proceedings throughout the race to claim his 41st grand prix victory.
Despite enduring what he called at the time one of his "worst races", Hamilton managed to extend his lead over Rosberg after the German driver got caught up in a collision with just a handful of laps to go.
Speaking ahead of this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, Hamilton explained how Mercedes is remaining very wary of the threat posed by Ferrari and is not resting on its laurels despite enjoying a comfortable lead in the constructors' championship.
"Well naturally we're here to win and we're focused on making sure we stay up front," Hamilton said.
"But we're fully aware that other teams are pushing very hard and Ferrari are looking great. So we don't arrive at any race thinking that we are superior to anyone.
"We know that we have a fight on our hands and so we're doing to work at trying to make sure we work harder than them."
Hamilton appeared to get away lightly in Hungary last time out after making a number of errors, but he does not believe such fortune indicates that the title is his to lose.
"Definitely not," the Briton said. "I think the team effort that goes in, seeing how hard my team is working, seeing the progress we're making I think encourages me to believe that it's going to be our year.
"You know you just have to keep your head down and you can't win them all."
The Belgian Grand Prix is live across NBCSN, CNBC and NBC Sports Live Extra this weekend. For more information, click here.