Lewis Hamilton doubts Mercedes will bounce back from their troubled start to the season in testing as easily as they did last year.
Mercedes had a difficult pre-season test in 2021 but rebounded at the first race of the year. Although Hamilton was beaten to pole position by Max Verstappen, he got ahead of his rival in the race and beat him to victory.
Speaking after his final run in the car before next weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Hamilton said it was clear Mercedes are not contenders for pole position and victory at the moment.
“No, at the moment we’re not,” he said, “I’m sure everyone can kind of figure that out. We’re not the quickest at the moment.
“I think Ferrari look to be the quickest and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us or McLaren, I don’t know. But we’re certainly not at the top.”
The team is in a much more difficult situation than it was 12 months ago, said Hamilton. “It feels a lot different. It’s not going to look as good as it did last year…