Hamilton arrives at Interlagosඣ trailing championship rival Max Verstappen by 19 points, with a total of 107 points left up grabs across the remaining four races of the 2021 F1 season. 

Verstappen’s dominant victory in Mꦐexico last weekend boosted his prospects of winning a maiden F1 title ꩲand moved Red Bull just one point behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. 

Considering Red Bull’s recent strong form and the fact Verstappen won the last time F1 visited Brazil two years ago, Hamilton is remaining r🦹ealistic about his victory 🙈chances. 

“I wꦆould imagine it’s as steep as it can be,” Hamilton said of the challenge ahead to add 🧸to his previous two career wins in Brazil. 

“Their pace was obviously phenomenal in the last race. They’ve had a strong car all year. They’ve had th🍃e strongest car act🐠ually, you can tell. 

“I think we’ve done as good as I think we c🙈ould. We are definitely going to be pushing this weekend to see if we can squeeze any more from out of the car. 

“Last time here they were incredibly strong and I anticipate again they will be very hard to beat this weekend, but when there’s a will♛ there’s a way.” 

Hamilton suggested Mercedes has had a harder time getting its car into the optimum set-up window ever 🥃since changes to the rules relating to the floor area were made over t🍌he winter. 

“This year we’ve had our w𝕴ings clipped, so it’s definitely been harder from an operational standpoint to maximise the car,” he said. 

“What we’ll just try to focus on is getting the car in the right window, which isn’t easy. It’s not an easy 🗹car to set up. But I ꦅthink that’s probably similar for everyone.” 

Expanding on the difficulties Mercedes has faced with its W12, Hamilton said the inconsistencies have pa☂rtly influenced the performance swings that have been witnessed between Red Bull and Merc♎edes at different tracks this season. 

“It’s just a bit harder to set up this year,” he added. “It’s really difficult to explain and to go into in terms of details but it’s just harder to optimise. Some 🃏weekends it works, some weekends it doesn’t.

“To land on the ground with the simula𒉰tions in the right place is just a little bit harder this꧂ year, but I think it’s similar for others.

“You saw in Austin for example, the Red Bulls were quite far off and then a💫ll of a sudden they switched it round.

“Getting the maximum potential out of the car has been hard thi𝕴s year.”

While history may be on his s✱ide, Verstappen said he is “100%” sure Mercedes will be much closer to Red Bull after en𒁃joying an advantage at the high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez last time out. 

“It’s been quite good to us in the past so I’m looking forward to being here again,” Verstappen said. “Of course a lot has cha⛎nged from 2019 but I do think we can do a good job. 

“There’s not many corners around here but of🍒 course with the altitude still being a little bit high that’s normally good foಞr us. 

“But when you look back at 2019 it was quit๊e a tough battle൩ with Lewis anyway, so I expect the same again.

“The altitude in Mexico is extremely high and here it is of course a little bit le🃏ss, so naturally they will be fast🐲er.”