Mercedes has had a tough time in Bahrain this week as its W13 suffers from continued dolphinization and is proving to be a challenge for both Hamilton and teammate George Russell.
With the German carmaker yet to find an answer to its problems with only one week left before the first race of the season, Hamilton is pessimistic about the team’s immediate prospects.
Speaking on Saturday about whether the situation has already raised some concerns that he is not in a position to challenge for the championship, Hamilton said: “Obviously it is too early to think of such thoughts. But at the moment I don’t think that we will fight for the wins.
“But our car has the potential to get us there. We just need to extract it and fix some issues, which is what we’re working on.”
Although Mercedes’ difficulties in Bahrain seem similar to the difficulties they faced in testing 12 months ago before turning the tide and winning the first race, Hamilton says the situation is far from repeating the script.
He suggests that the fixes Mercedes needs to make to gain an advantage in their car will require more than just tweaking.
“There are many other things here,” he said. “It’s not that good… I don’t think we’re going to make it look as good as last year with the hard training we had in practice and then switch to racing.
“I think we have much bigger problems this time around and it’s not just one week.
“I think they will take a little longer. But from what I’ve been told, we need to find a significant pace.”
But while Hamilton was pessimistic about Mercedes’ initial competitiveness, he hasn’t lost faith that his team can find the answer in the longer term.
“Everyone is doing such an incredible job at the factory, working hard,” he said. “But we have to overcome some obstacles.
“Obviously next week we will show our pace much better. But I think people might be surprised. People keep talking about how we put ourselves down, but this year it’s a little different.”
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