Lewis Hamilton insists Mercedes must now switch focus to haul in Red Bull

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes must start focusing on next season with Red Bull maintaining their march to F1 title glory this year. Max Verstappen secured victory at the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday for Red Bull’s 10th-straight win – and nine from nine in 2023 – while the team also celebrated 100 wins in Formula 1. Christian Horner’s team now lead the constructors’ championship by 154 points to Mercedes, while Verstappen has a 69-point lead in the driver standings to team-mate Sergio Perez. Hamilton, who finished third in Montreal, was satisfied to be fighting with Verstappen and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso at the top of the leaderboard but insists his team must now divert focus to 2024. "I reckon Max’s team are already working on next year’s car, so we need to take our eye a little bit off the ball and focus on next year also but happy to be up there,” he said. "For us to be up there, having battles with Fernando in the Aston, and being on the second row, it’s been great. To be on the podium two races in a row is really fantastic for us. "We were also running fourth in Monaco, so we’re definitely getting closer. And it’s going to be a battle of development over the rest of the season. Hamilton added that, as he continues to pursue a record-breaking eighth world championship, he yearns for the closely-fought battles of his 2021 title battle with Verstappen once again. "It’s likely that they [Red Bull] will win every race, moving forwards, this year, unless the Astons and us put a lot more performance on the cars, or their car doesn’t finish,” the Brit added. "It’s not easy with the regulations to find the amount of performance that they have, advantage-wise. They’ve got to be 30 [downforce] points upon us in certain points through the lap and we’ve got some work to do. "But it’s not that it’s frustrating – I’m happy to firstly be back in the mix and I’m just hoping at some stage we can have it all a little bit more level so we can get back to some of the good races we had back in 2021. To have all three of us in a super-tight battle would be sick." Hamilton’s contract with Mercedes expires at the end of this season but a new deal appears to be in the pipeline in the coming weeks. The 38-year-old will next be in action at the Austrian Grand Prix (30 June - 2 July) before his home race, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, a week later. Read More Are Red Bull now the most successful F1 team ever – and how long can this dominance last? Christian Horner details what makes ‘mega talent’ Max Verstappen so special Lewis Hamilton ‘excited’ to share Canada podium with two world champions Red Bull mastermind Adrian Newey hints at retirement: ‘It’s on a countdown’ Max Verstappen aims to ‘keep winning’ after matching Ayrton Senna’s 41 victories