Lewis Hamilton is confident that Mercedes are now capable of winning a race in the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Mercedes had a difficult start to the season as the W13 car was underperforming. The upgrades helped Mercedes get on top of their issues, but they are yet to win a race in 2022.
Hamilton revealed that at first he did not think Mercedes would be able to win a race this year.
“Earlier this year, [I] definitely wasn’t sure we’d ever get a win in this car,” he said.
“Obviously, that’s not the way we like to think, but it was feeling like, ‘Jesus, it’s a long, long way to catch everyone up, knowing the progress everyone makes’.”
Nevertheless, the upgrades made Hamilton more optimistic: “[It’s] definitely [been] hugely encouraging.
“Particularly [because] for a long, long time, we would make changes and not see it do what [we thought] it was going to do or improve the car.
“It was a good step in Barcelona, but then we had several difficult races following it.
“Then we just had these last [few] races which were quite strong, and that’s really encouraged us that we’re moving in the right direction, that there really is potential in the car.
“With a little bit more digging, a little bit more hard work, hopefully we can get a bit closer to having a chance of winning a race.
“So I truly believe we can get a race win this year.”
