Lewis Hamilton's points deficit to Max Verstappen is "tiny" and there will be "plenty of opportunities" to overturn it across the final four races of the season, according to Mercedes Strategy Director James Vowles. Verstappen moved 19 points clear of Hamilton in the Drivers' Championship with a dominant victory in the Mexican Grand Prix, while Mercedes' advantage over Red Bull in the Constructors' has been slashed to just one point. Despite having to settle for second place in Mexico City, after locking out the front row of the grid, Vowles believes there are "plenty" of positives for Mercedes to take and highlighted the fragility of the points situations.
One retirement could change everything
"This championship, and trust us, we have been in the lead of it sufficiently with a points gap, it's never over until it's over," said Vowles in Mercedes' post-Mexican GP debrief. "One DNF both for ourselves or for Red Bull would completely change how this championship forms at the end of the season and ultimately, the points gap is tiny. We've got four races to go, 19 points [behind] in the Drivers' and one point in the Constructors' in our favour. That's nothing. It's a reset condition. "We've outqualified Red Bull at a track where they were stronger. It just shows you that each team is on the edge and you have to get everything absolutely spot on in order to get the result that you need, and there is plenty of opportunity."
Mercedes more united than ever before
Vowles added that Mercedes have pulled together more than ever before in a bid to beat Red Bull to the championship and he remains confident that the W12 can take the fight to the RB16B during the run-in. "The positives that we can take are that across the last few races, even at tracks that perhaps don't suit us as much, we can be there or thereabouts," he commented. "[In Mexico] we walked away with a second with Lewis, we walked away out of qualifying first and second. That just means we are in this fight right until the end and I'm sure we'll be until Abu Dhabi until that chequered flag. "The team, despite this punishing triple-header, are pulling together closer than I have ever seen before. The drivers are working together more than I've seen before as well. "It's a bonded team, a team that is here to do one goal which is to win both championships, and that for me is the positives."
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