Hamilton rues costly Mercedes 'mistakes'

Lewis Hamilton is remaining optimistic about the W15, despite Mercedes enduring a difficult start to the season.

After finishing as the best of the rest behind Red Bull last season, the Brackley-based team were hoping to take the fight to the defending champions in 2024.

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But while Max Verstappen has continued his dominance by heading two one-two finishes in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, Mercedes have fallen behind with their worst start to a season since 2012.

Hamilton and team-mate George Russell have failed to finish inside the top four, as Ferrari and McLaren have looked more stronger outfits so far this season.

Hamilton bullish about new Mercedes car

Hamilton described last season’s W14 as the ‘evil sister’ of the W13 on Netflix’s Drive to Survive after neither car secured him a victory – the Brit has not won since Jeddah in 2021.

But when asked by Sky Sports in Australia whether this year’s car gave him similar feelings, he responded: "It's definitely not the evil sister or anything like that.

"I think we have an amazing car, there's a lot of potential in it and I think we just haven't maximised it at the moment."

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When questioned on what was causing problems with the car, Hamilton said: "Through set-up, through ultimately mistakes and we're obviously not happy with the performance at those first couple of races," the 39-year-old said.

"But I think there's a lot more potential in it that we just haven't quite extracted yet. So that's what everyone's focus is on, just trying to understand the car.

"And we're hoping this weekend is a step forward. There's a huge amount of work that's gone on, everyone's heads are down in the numbers and I feel positive for this weekend. We've had two not such great races but there's a long way ahead."

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