“He’s had a blighted start to his career and had so much turmoil in his time,”
Hill said. “Now he seems pretty calm, he’s found his feet, he has it
together and there is balance.
“He’s got a tough team-mate in Nico, but he knows how to beat him. Everybody
would put him down as quite possibly over one lap as the quickest here.
“They might not put him as tactically astute as someone like [Fernando]
Alonso or [Sebastian] Vettel but he is coming of age.”
The 1996 world champion also backed Hamilton to go on and comfortably surpass
Nigel Mansell’s British record of 31 career victories.
He added: “I think he could make 50 or about that – double what he has now.
He’s 29 and if you look at his career he’s had near misses for the title,
fallen foul of F1 politics, had terrible reliability, joined the team when
they were going through a massive downturn. Things are starting to come
together for him.”
As Hamilton praised his 2014 Mercedes as his “best-ever car”, he spoke of how
he is pushing himself more than ever to win that elusive second
championship, which many believed would have been added to his trophy
cabinet long before now after winning the crown in 2008.
“I’m more mature,” he said. “I’m getting older, so all the experiences are
adding up. I’m starting to see the benefits of the mistakes, and the things
I’ve said, or the things I’ve done, and I even noticed it in the race.”
Meanwhile, Christian Horner has defended Vettel’s use of the word
“s—” to describe the new engine noise, after rumours circulated – which were
strenuously denied by both parties – that the FIA had communicated a warning
to the German.
“No one’s spoken to me about it over the weekend – he should be applauded for
saying what he thinks,” was Horner’s view.
The team were also taking criticism from their rivals in the paddock over
their approach in the dispute surrounding Daniel Ricciardo’s
disqualification from the Australian Grand Prix.
It centres on the fuel flow rate sensors, which the team have argued are
faulty and unreliable. But McLaren’s Eric Boullier rejected Red
Bull’s argument.
“We have been told to use it, so we use it,” Boullier said. “No debate.” The
Frenchman added: “When you have two systems to measure your fuel flow, there
will always be discrepancy between them.
“If you find an interest in using System A because you find more performance,
I understand you may choose this way.
“But if in a regulated championship you are told to use B, [it’s] out of the
question [not to]. We have to respect the fuel flow so we have to have a
system to measure it.”