Lewis Hamilton finds 'hope' for Silverstone after Austrian "reality check"

Lewis Hamilton is banking on the backing of the Silverstone fans to power him to a ninth British Grand Prix victory, and a first home success with Ferrari. 

The seven-time champion more often than not seems to find an extra ounce of pace when racing in front of his home fans, and after a tough weekend at the Red Bull Ring where he fell to a distant fifth-place finish, Hamilton is aware of the challenges that he will face on the high-speed Silverstone layout. 

"Lots of straights and lots of deployment, and not many places to recover the power," he told media, including Crash.net. 

"So, you know, maybe the deficit won't be as big as here. I don't know. But, there are a lot more straights. So, it's hard to say. 

"I hope we're in a better place. I hope that just by the fans giving it there, we get an extra bit of performance."

Over half a million people are expected to attend the British Grand Prix across the four days. 

Having scored his first victory with Ferrari in Spain, expectations quickly rose that Hamilton could repeat the feat on home soil. After being joined on that podium by George Russell and Lando Norris, completing an incredibly rare all-British podium, there is a lot for the home fans to be excited about. 

Asked if the Austrian weekend had knocked his confidence after taking to the top step in Spain, Hamilton said: "I think it's more of a reality check. 

"I think we don't know why we were so competitive on Sunday in Barcelona. I think that's a very strong track for me. I chose a strategy that I thought from experience, I knew would work with the deg that we had, it was like 2021, you know.

"Then, in the race, I think we were hit more with reality, which is that we still do have a good car, but we are down on, compared to Mercedes, just in our pace. 

"They just are quicker. And, we still have to keep developing. It doesn't mean we can't close that gap, it's just that one win doesn't mean we're going to be beating them all the time.

"It's the opposite. We've got a lot of work to do. We still have to just continue to add performance to the car, particularly power, which is where we're going to have to keep working on pushing."