'It's crunch time' - Hamilton plots Ferrari title

Lewis Hamilton is seeking his first win as a Ferrari driver

Lewis Hamilton says he is "challenging every area" of Ferrari as he seeks to help turn the team into champions again.

The 40-year-old Briton has had a difficult start to his debut year with Ferrari, with no podium finishes. He took a sprint-race win in China at the second race of the season.

Hamilton, whose team-mate Charles Leclerc has scored four podium finishes, said: "It is a huge organisation with a lot of moving parts and not all of them are firing on all cylinders they need to be.

"I feel like it's my job to challenge every area. To challenge everyone in the team, particularly those at the top."

Ferrari have not won a title of any kind since a constructors' championship in 2008, while their last drivers' title was with Kimi Raikkonen in 2007.

Hamilton pointed out the iconic Italian team could not blame the quality of drivers for their lack of success. At various times since 2008, Ferrari have had Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Raikkonen in their ranks.

"The team have had amazing drivers - Kimi, Fernando, Sebastian - and yet they didn't win a title with Ferrari," said seven-time world champion Hamilton.

"I refuse for that to be the case with me, that's why I am going the extra mile. If you take the same path, you get the same results."

Hamilton said he had written a series of documents for Ferrari's leadership this year outlining areas for improvement.

He has met with chairman John Elkann, chief executive officer Benedetto Vigna and team principal Frederic Vasseur since the British Grand Prix to go over both his issues with this year's car and thoughts about future development.

"There have been great responses," he added. "There are lots of improvements that need to be made, but [they're] very responsive and I'm trying to create allies within the organisation.

"I'm here to win. It's crunch time for me and I truly believe in the potential of this team, I believe they can win multiple championships moving forward. That's my sole goal."

Ferrari are introducing a new rear suspension for this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix, with the hope it will improve performance by allowing them to run the car lower without hitting the track too much.

"We'll get to test the suspension tomorrow and I am sure there will be learning from it," said Hamilton.

"We will figure out how to extract performance from it. On the simulator there was no difference, but I am sure there will be differences across different circuits."