Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes can extend their dominant run in Formula 1 as long as they don’t become distracted by “other ventures”.

While rival teams have narrowed the performance gap to Mercedes since their dominant start to the V6 hybrid turbo era, Hamilton believes the team has become stronger in other areas.

“I think this year if you look at the team’s performance on the race weekends our mechanics, our engineers, strategists, we’ve all raised our game,” he said after taking pole position in Abu Dhabi.

“It’s never, ever been perfect, neither of us as drivers. But collectively, as a team, I think we’ve really continued to elevate ourselves. Which is, again, inspiring for me and that encourages me to go out there and not want to let them down.”

Hamilton believes Mercedes need to keep their focus on F1 and not become distracted by other objectives.

“I’m confident, as long as Mercedes don’t change their approach and don’t change their desire to win. Some teams decide to veer off and do some other business venture and lose a bit of focus on the main ultimate goal. As long as they don’t do that, I believe that we’ll be able to stay on this path and continue to fight at the top.”

The team mustn’t take their position for granted, he added. “Ferrari have been doing an amazing job this year,” he said. “We’ve got to keep the hammer down, keep pushing as they will be. See how close they are right now.

“And look at Valtteri, he’s been driving exceptionally well all year. I know next year again, third year with the team, he will be even quicker so we will have to rediscover new skills for next year.”

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2018 F1 season