Lewis Hamilton has stated that “innovation” will be key for Ferrari if it wants to prevent Mercedes from running away with the championship.
New F1 regulations were introduced this year, with Mercedes emerging from the opening rounds with the most competitive package.
After winning the first six races of the season, Mercedes was finally beaten last weekend at the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, where Hamilton claimed his first victory as a Ferrari driver.
The win came at the same weekend the Italian squad introduced a major upgrade package, which helped the team take a step forward.
Hamilton insisted Ferrari cannot afford to stand still as it looks to close the gap to Mercedes in the championship standings.
“It’s so early in the season to get to this point,” Hamilton told media including RacingNews365.
“These guys have really listened and really worked hard to add performance and be innovative. This year is all about innovation.
“We came out with the bit on the rear exhaust. We came out with, what else was it, the rear wing, the Macarena.
“This is what I was asking for last year. It was like this team has to be the leaders in that, and they’ve shown that they can and they will.”
However, Hamilton acknowledged that Ferrari is still not where it needs to be to maintain its presence over Mercedes in the coming races.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” he said. “By no means is this something that’s just going to happen all the time.
“We’ve got a heavy, heavy, steep mountain to climb up ahead of us to try to do this as Mercedes has all year so far.”
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