Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton also took part in the official Thursday press conference held by the FIA at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal Canada where journalists grilled him on how the Brackley based squad were going to take the fight to Ferrari, if they had solved the tyre issues that have plagued them for the majority of the season.
Hamilton was his usual composed self, explaining the difficulties they have in getting the Pirelli rubber up to an optimum temperature and whether or not they can improve things for the coming weekend's race.
he was also asked his opinion on adding more races to the calendar and he agreed with Fernando Alonso's thoughts on the issue, but didn't go as far as to say he would leave the sport if Liberty Media, the new owners of F1, opted to go ahead with their initial thoughts to add more than the current 20 events.
Lewis. Five poles, five wins. Montreal is a great place for you to come to bounce back from your disappointment in Monaco last time out. Toto Wolff's pre-race notes are interesting: he said that it could be a tricky race for Mercedes in terms of the layout of the track. How positive do you feel about the weekend?
I think Toto mentioned that he thinks Ferrari… We've obviously seen that Ferrari are quickest at the moment, so they're the favourites, but we've worked very hard to rectify the issues we had in the last race, and after the weekend… Attack this weekend. We've got some unique bits on the car I think which will work well this weekend, but it doesn't mean we can't take the fight to them.
It's no secret that the Mercedes car has a few issues with the softer compound tyres this year, getting them into that sweet spot and then keeping them there. How much work have you been able to do behind the scenes to fix this problem up to this point?
Not much at all.
Just what you can do on-event with those tyres when you get them?
Yeah. We've definitely done some analysis, but we'll find whether or not there's new things we can improve on this weekend.
Can you tell us how difficult is it to make the tyre work and how you heat them during the pre-laps?
You just drive it the same. You push or you drive slowly, depending on the temperature of the circuit, and when you come to do your laps sometimes they're ready and sometimes they're not. It's difficult to… It's kind of an unfeeling - sometimes the tyres feel exactly the same when you leave the garage, and sometimes they grip up. It's the same for every tyre.
I want to talk a little bit about here, as it's a very special place for you. Obviously this is where it all began, and this is where you started to build your legacy. You posted a picture on Instagram that was very nice, it was a young you in your karate uniform and your father was with you. Fathers' Day is this weekend, and I wanted to know - when you come here, does it still… Do you still have those good memories, do you have that positive feeling, those feelings when you first won the race? It's been ten years now, and I just wanted to know: do you still feel that positive energy going into this weekend?
Montreal's been… Obviously, having the amazing experience I had in 2007; I remember standing on the podium and looking down at my dad and just seeing the biggest smile I'd ever seen in my life on his face, which was a very proud moment. And then, since then, just every year I come, I've just grown a lot with Canada and with Montreal, and the following has grown along the time, ten years, and so a lot of my time when I see get here is spectacular. You definitely feel the energy. Here is such a great race; the weather's generally really good, the circuit's incredible and unique to its own, the city's one of the greatest cities. I've not been here when it's not been a grand prix, but there's a huge buzz here. I love being here. I try and get here a bit early, because the food's great, the people are great, and I generally get left alone, so it's a good weekend.
At this point in the season, from a driver's perspective, has much changed with the change in administration of the sport? Have you noticed anything heading in any direction in terms of commercial opportunities, of the way the sport is run, or when you wake up in the morning is it business as usual, with no noticeable differences?
Very very small changes. At the moment I think they're in planning, so. Coming into this track today, I don't know if you know where the bridge is? Normally they stop the traffic to let the fans walk through. After ten years or 15 years or whatever, they've finally built a stairway to go up and over the road. I don't know who did that, but otherwise there's not really other changes so far.
It is said that a driver gets stronger after winning for the first time. Have you noticed any change in Valtteri after Sochi? And did you notice any change in yourself here ten years ago after your first victory?
I've not noticed any difference in Valtteri - he's still his calm, composed self. But definitely for me when I won my first grand prix it was definitely a huge boost, confirming what I knew in my heart I could do. So I can only imagine that it's the same for anyone else, it's just that some people show it more than others.
I know you mentioned enjoying your time in Montreal, which we all really appreciate, but as far as when you're on the track, what is it about the track that suits you well, that enables you to have all that success here?
It's been ten years, I think it's just a bit like once you get to the corners it's a bit like a go-kart track, and long straights added to that, so it creates lots of opportunities for overtaking, you can follow here a little bit better than perhaps at other circuits, it's a lot more of a mechanical, technical circuit, and it suits well an aggressive driving style I guess I would say. So all of that means you have to be generally more aggressive than we can be at other circuits.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the first Formula One race in Canada. I just wanted to know what is the significance of this race to Formula One and personally, is there a significance of this race to you?
The significance of this race? Well, Formula One is obviously made up of a lot of great countries, a lot of great races, but there are the exceptional races and there's only a few of them. This race is in that few.
Is there any major, urgent upgrade you need to be more competitive against Ferrari?
Not that I know of. Not that I know of. I don't have that information to say.
You said you were going to go into the factory after the last race. Did you go in and what did you learn with your engineers?
We were just focussed on this race, and it was shortly after the last race, so after the last race there was lots of information for them to be working on. So, we didn't have all the solutions and the answers at that point.
Going back to the 25 races, how do you think about that and would this be just a case for you to think about backing out also, like Fernando said?
I haven't really given it any thought but I understand what Fernando's saying and tend to agree with him.
