"I'm hopeful, but I'm not going to hold my breath": Lewis Hamilton's pensive outlook on Mercedes prospects next season

Lewis Hamilton is hopeful that Mercedes could close the gap to the front next season. He hasn't had the best time in 2022 and 2023. Since the regulations changed at the end of 2021, Red Bull seem to have got a major headstart over every other team.

So much so that, they broke all kinds of records this season. With the exception of the race in Singapore, they won everything else. Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, went winless after taking a solitary win last season, which explains his scepticism about the team's prospects in 2024.

In consecutive seasons, Mercedes haven't been good enough to make an impact or challenge Red Bull. Looking forward to the 2024 season, Hamilton said about his team's prospects:

“I think we have understood the car so much better. We have developed great tools in the background. So naturally, I'm hopeful, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

"The thing is with the timeline you have and the limited resources you have, you can’t just throw it away and start from scratch, you can’t copy a car and start from that."

He added:

"Look at the Astons, they tried to copy a car, and it wasn’t the same. It is not as easy as that.

"You have to try and take the good parts and through trial and error just try to add other parts. But you can imagine they are also nervous of making too big a change and it being the wrong one."

---

"I do have faith": Lewis Hamilton

Stressing that Mercedes need to consistently work week in and week out, Lewis Hamilton expressed faith in his team but admitted that they have huge work to do to beat Red Bull:

"We need to be consistently week-on-week adding performance, and we have higher targets than ever before because we have a massive gap to catch. That makes it really tricky."

He added:

“I do have faith that we will get there. We have been (at the top) before as a team, and while we have more and more new people, we still have great values, and I see great focus within everyone.

Lewis Hamilton has not won a race since 2021, so he will be itching to return to winning ways after two barren seasons.