Lewis Hamilton says people began to realise his strength as a Formula 1 driver once he became a multiple world champion.

Speaking in an interview for Mercedes, Hamilton said he was still coming to terms with his fifth championship victory.

“Did I think that I’d be five-time world champion? Of course I dreamt about it but shoot, man, I dream a lot of things that don’t happen.

“It’s really hard to think that just six years ago I joined this team and I was one-time world champion and now I have four more. That’s not an insignificant number and it’s very, very hard if not almost impossible to grasp the magnitude of what those four mean.

“It’s weird because it’s almost like one kind of doesn’t really mean anything, it’s cool. Two, not too bad. Three is like, well, you’re kind of starting to do well.

“And then it’s really weird how in this sport and probably other sports as well it’s not until you have multiple that people really start to realise the strength in depth and the ability and the consistency and all these difficult things.”

Hamilton, who has won the championship in four of the last five seasons, said each of his five title so far had felt different.

“Winning the world championship is obviously an incredibly special thing and feeling,” he said. “But they all feel different in so many different ways.”

For the second year in a row, Hamilton clinched the title in Mexico despite struggling in the race. “It was, and has been for the last couple of years, a horrible race for me,” he said.

“I’ve got great support from the fans so it was a great weekend but the actual race felt terrible because we struggled with the tyres, and [the] previous year I got taken out. So this was kind of crazy to think I’m in Mexico, I had a difficult race the race before, still really close, and all of a sudden I’m world champion.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 F1 season