Lewis Hamilton stood on the Silverstone pit straight that now bears his name, looking out at a sea of flags and scarlet Ferrari shirts, and made the kind of promise that defines careers. “I tell you, I won’t stop til we get there,” he said, vowing to chase an unprecedented eighth Formula 1 world title.

The seven-time champion arrives at his 20th home Grand Prix in resurgent form. His move to Ferrari, once seen as a romantic late-career gamble, has begun to look like a calculated strike. A breakthrough victory in Barcelona ended a long winless spell for both driver and team, and a string of podiums has carried him to third in the standings, within striking distance of championship leader Kimi Antonelli in the dominant Mercedes.

Yet Hamilton is under no illusions about the scale of the task. Mercedes have taken seven wins from the opening eight races and locked out every pole position. Straight-line speed remains Ferrari’s glaring weakness, a painful handicap at a power-sensitive circuit like Silverstone.

“I’m a realist,” Hamilton admitted. “Mercedes have won pretty much everything, particularly at the beginning, very easily. Even when people brought upgrades, they still won and they didn’t bring an upgrade, so I think they have plenty in their pocket. Whether or not we can compete with them at this current stage, we are pushing really hard to try and close the gap on those straights.”

Hamilton has been frank about Ferrari’s power deployment issues, warning that energy recovery limitations could leave them especially exposed over a lap dominated by high-speed sections. But he also knows Silverstone has a way of bending to his will. Nine times he has won here, in the wet and in the dry, from the front and from the back, feeding off the fervour of a home crowd that treats him as its standard-bearer.

He intends to draw on that again. “You think about executing the best you can through the weekend, bringing the right energy, absorbing the amazing energy from all the fans,” he said. Citing Nigel Mansell’s belief that a home crowd gives a driver extra speed, Hamilton is banking on that intangible force to help Ferrari punch above their numbers.

For now, the statistics favour Mercedes. The mood at Silverstone suggests the story is not finished yet.