"It's not as good" - Lewis Hamilton refutes 2021-like turnaround from pre-season testing

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has revealed that, unlike last season, he does not expect a drastic turnaround in Mercedes' performance very soon this year. With exactly a week to go until the 2022 season opener in Bahrain, the final pre-season testing has come to an end, with the German constructor appearing beset with issues.

As reported by GPFans, Lewis Hamilton shared his apprehension going into the Bahrain Grand Prix, saying:

“It feels a lot different. It’s not as good. I don’t think we’re going to be looking as good as last year with the difficult session in practice then the switch to the race. We have far bigger challenges this time and they’re not one-week turnarounds. They will take a little bit longer but from what I’m told we have a considerable amount of pace to find.”

Mercedes have certainly struggled in pre-season testing sessions. Drivers such as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, however, think that the team is simply underplaying their position and hyping up the rest as a way of keeping their cards close to their chest.

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"We’re not at the top" - Lewis Hamilton ahead of 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix

Mercedes have eight consecutive constructors' world championship titles to their name. Going into the new era of F1, however, their driver Lewis Hamilton fears that the Brackley-based outfit is lagging in performance compared to several others. The Briton even went on to claim that they are not in a position to be fighting for wins as the car stands today.

Highlighting their struggles as a team, Hamilton said:

“We’ve got through the test programme, we’ve had decent reliability which has been positive. I think everyone is struggling on this bumpy track and we’ve come out of it knowing that we still have a lot of work to do.”

He added, saying:

“There’s a confidence that we can always work through whatever problem we are facing. At the moment, I’m sure everyone can figure it out, we’re not the quickest. I think Ferrari look to be the quickest, perhaps Red Bull then maybe us or McLaren, I don’t know. Currently, we’re not at the top.”

While the Silver Arrows have dominated the turbo-hybrid era, several other teams now see a ray of hope going into the 2022 season with drastic changes in regulations.