Lewis Hamilton highlights major issue ahead of Mexican Grand Prix

Hamilton can wrap up his fifth world title this weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix if he finishes seventh or higher, or if Sebastian Vettel fails to win the race.

The Brit has been in incredible form since returning from the summer break but he still gets frustrated by the lack of competition at the front of the grid.

“That’s a fundamental issue of the sport. There shouldn’t be such a big difference between first and last, there shouldn’t be such a massive difference between cars,” Hamilton said.

“How a Williams or a McLaren can be three seconds off a lap? That’s a huge amount of performance. So I think they’ve got to change the rules to allow that gap to go so we can have more awesome racing.

“It’s got the potential to be the greatest racing series there is, but you look at MotoGP and they are wheel to wheel, fighting from corner to corner.

“I don’t feel like it’s entirely the backmarkers’ fault. Here, tyre pressures have gone up, it’s very hard to follow, so as soon as you get within five seconds you feel the wake from the car ahead.

“The car starts sliding more. So the advantage you have starts to disappear the closer you get.

“They’ve got a race to do, they shouldn’t have to let off massively to give several seconds to you. So it’s a bit of a difficult scenario.

“For example I was stuck behind two Toro Rossos, but I couldn’t get close enough, and my tyres were getting worse and worse, and I wasn’t getting close enough for them to have to lift off.

“So it is a difficult one. It was nowhere near as bad as somewhere like Singapore, for example.”

Hamilton missed his chance to wrap up the Drivers’ Championship last weekend at the US Grand Prix as he surrendered his pole position to finish third – behind winner Kimi Raikkonen and second-placed Max Verstappen.

“I really enjoyed the race. Kimi drove great, Max drove great,” Hamilton added.

“Seeing that there was three of us, at one point there was me and Kimi wheel-to-wheel, I thought it was awesome. I wish it went for longer in that first stint, and the next time that it happened.

“And then at the end with us three in that train I wished the race could continue, because it was awesome, and I was hoping that we might get to manoeuvre.

“But still fundamental issues in F1 being that you can’t follow, so there’s so big gaps between us all. So I really, really hope that whatever the guys are doing I hope they are making some good decisions for 2021.

“So that there’s not a second and a half that you need to get close to a car. I hope it’s a lot less than that. If you get it a lot less then we’re gonna have the best racing series ever.”