"My guess is as good as yours" - Lewis Hamilton calls it 'too early' to look at a title fight for him

Lewis Hamilton feels it is too early to stake a claim at being the title contender this season.

The Mercedes challenger has not been in the best shape with the team suffering from bouncing all season. Things changed for the better in Barcelona as the car appeared to escape its extreme porpoising issues. George Russell scored a podium while Hamiton bounced back to fifth in the race after a first-lap collision dropped him to the back of the field.

At the drivers' press conference, Lewis Hamilton was questioned if he felt he could be a contender in the championship battle. The Briton felt it was too early for something like that, saying:

“I don’t know. It’s too early to say. I think honestly, we know that there’s potential in the car and I think we tapped into it in the last race. So, I’m really hoping this… I mean, this is a completely different track, so I’m hoping that is not up and down from weekend-in, weekend-out from now on. But my guess is as good as yours.”

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We definitely had the pace in Barcelona: Lewis Hamilton

Mercedes' turn of speed in Barcelona was a bit of a surprise for everyone, including Lewis Hamilton, who admitted that he wasn't expecting to have this kind of pace in the race. He said:

“Yep, we definitely weren’t expecting it. I think we were expecting to hopefully be closer to the Ferraris but I think Charles’ [Leclerc] pace was probably ahead of everyone’s but other than that. I mean, yeah, I definitely didn’t expect to come so far behind.”

When questioned if he felt he could have fought for the win as alluded to by Toto Wolff, the Mercedes driver refused to speculate and said:

“I have no idea. It’s all ifs and buts but we definitely had the pace.”

The new Mercedes upgrade did appear to turn things around for the team as the car was not bouncing, the drivers were able to push the car to the limit as a result, and the team had a strong race with both drivers. Now it remains to be seen how the car will behave in the next few races to form a better judgment about the prospects of the German team.