Lewis Hamilton has insisted that his recent lack of race wins isn't weighing on him, and that he's convinced that it's only a matter of time before Mercedes are in contention for victories and titles again.
Until 2022, Hamilton had won at least one race every season since he made his F1 debut with McLaren in 2007. He racked up 21 wins with the team before switching to Mercedes in 2013, with whom he's won a further 82 Grands Prix.
But the last of those was in December 2021, with last season proving a huge disappointment as the W13 suffered problems with porpoising that allowed Red Bull and Ferrari to get the upper hand.
This year Red Bull's domination has been total, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez victorious in every race so far, while Aston Martin has emerged as a new threat even as Ferrari has fallen away.
Mercedes didn't have the best start to the season, but upgrades to the W14 introduced in Monaco came good in Barcelona and Montreal with Hamilton finishing on the podium in both races.
“We’ve gone through a tough patch, and we’re kind of like on the up," he told the media in Montreal last week. "The last race and some of the races, it feels like we’ve had wins. It’s just about perspective.
“Of course we’ve not been in first place, but there have been many wins in the steps that we’ve taken," he added. "For us as a team to be on the podium with both drivers [in Spain], that was a win for us.
"We’re just focused," he continued. "We have that north star. We know where we need to go. We don’t know everything of how to get there, but we know that together we can get there if we just keep our heads down and focus on the science.”
“The engineering team is fantastic within the organisation,” he said. “We’ve got great development team. I honestly think we’ve got the best development rate, as good if not better than any team in the sport.
"You’ve just got to keep chipping away," he insisted, adding that the 31-race drought since his last win hadn't piled any pressure on his shoulders that wasn't there already: "I don’t feel any weight."
Hamilton's team mate George Russell did win a race in 2022, emerging triumphant in both the sprint and the Grand Prix in Sao Paulo last November with Hamilton crossing the line just behind him in second.
Next weekend will be at Red Bull's home circuit in Spielberg, Austria, but after that it's onto Hamilton's turf with the British GP at Silverstone, which he's very much looking forward to.
"Super excited to get to have the British Grand Prix," he beamed. "The weather has been amazing in the past week or so ... Let’s hope that that extends out to when we get there.
"I’m hoping by then we will hopefully have taken another step," he said, adding that he hoped the performance the team had found in recent outings would carry forward. "We’re only like three tenths off [Red Bull]," he pointed out.
"Maybe that will be a race where we get to actually race them, but we’ll see.
"[In Spain] I was around three or four tenths off Max which was the closest I think we’ve ever been this year," he explained. "So I’m really, really hopeful that we can."
Hamilton's hopes have been boosted by news that Mercedes plans to introduce more upgrades in the next few races as they vie with Aston Martin for second place in the constructors standings.
Despite a retirement for Russell in Canada, the Silver Arrows hold a 13 point lead over their rivals in the championship after eight of this year's 22 races.
But Red Bull are unquestionably romping away at the top, with 321 points in total compared to Mercedes' current tally of 167.
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