Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the team may not have come up with any definitive answers as to why they were beaten by Red Bull in France, but believes the work the team has done in the days since the defeat will put them in good stead. With Max Verstappen utilising an aggressive two stop strategy to come back at both Mercedes drivers and overtaking Hamilton on the penultimate lap in France, Hamilton said the work at Mercedes since has been relentless. "We've been working flat out these past few days, Day 1 is always about recovery," Hamilton told select members of the media, including RacingNews365. "But there's been a lot of Zooms, a lot of calls, everyone in the team, it's been really inspiring and encouraging to see everyone just flat out, everyone just leaving no stone unturned. And I got to be at the factory yesterday. So again, just good to speak to the team. And just continue to encourage them to keep pushing, because that's what we're all doing. "We need everyone to bring their A-game this year to be able to fight these Red Bulls." Asked whether Mercedes have got the answers to be able to come back at Red Bull as the RB16B now appears to have the legs on the W12, Hamilton admitted that these isn't a clearcut answer. "I wouldn't say necessarily we get the answers always that we're looking for," he said. "I think definitely, more and more, we have more information I would say coming here. And I hope we'll find out tomorrow if, hopefully if it's dry, the things that we found are pushing us in the right direction. But it's so many elements, it's not just one thing. "If you look at the last race, there was lots and lots of areas that we lost position. And if we'd done some things differently, potentially could have had a different outcome. So we just look at our processes and how we communicate, how we deliver and hopefully we can implement them here." But the reigning Champion refused to say that he felt Mercedes are now on the back foot in their battle, believing that it's not the correct mindset to approach race weekends. "I think that's a negative way to approach any race is to think that you're on the backfoot," Hamilton explained. "So we know how strong they are. We've obviously got three long straights here. You see how much time they've taken out of us on the straights in the last race. That could be the same here. We will wait and see. But no, we come here with an optimistic approach. "What we've learned in the last race, what we've learned since then, just in these three days, hopefully will help us take a small step forwards, even if it's 0.01 percent. That's a step in the right direction."
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