• Mercedes news

Vettel not unbeatable - Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton: "I definitely think that we should be more competitive than we were in the last race" © Getty Images

Enlarge

Lewis Hamilton's main goal this year is to help Mercedes beat Ferrari in the constructors' championship but he also thinks Sebastian Vettel is not unbeatable in the drivers' standings.

A despondent Hamilton ruled out his chances of fighting for the title immediately after finishing ninth two weeks ago at the Italian Grand Prix, but later that day changed his tune to say was not giving up. On arrival in Singapore he said his focus was not really on the title fight, but despite an 81 point gap to the Red Bull driver he still believes beating Vettel is possible.

"I'm a realist," he said. "I don't come here thinking everything is going to be great. What will be, will be. Everything from here is a bonus, I never expected to be where I am this season so I really feel that whatever is ahead is a positive. There will be experiences that are not so great but I think we are now at a point where we really carefully make the right decisions and put ourselves in the right positions.

"Whether that means winning the championship or not I don't know, but hopefully we can beat the Ferraris. That's the main goal at the moment. I don't think he [Sebastian Vettel] is unbeatable."

Hamilton is confident Mercedes can recover from its recent dip in form with the first return to a high-downforce circuit since he won at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.

"I'm really hoping that the car is going to be more competitive here," he added. "Obviously we know what the package was like that we had in Hungary, it was good then, and we've made some small tweaks to it to make it even stronger here. Everyone else will put their packages on that they had in Hungary, which I'm sure they've fine tuned as well, but I definitely think that we should be more competitive than we were in the last race. Fingers crossed that's the case."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.