Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has claimed that his drivers may have a chance of winning the Las Vegas Grand Prix, as the team are 'champions' of mastering difficult conditions.
Hamilton will join Ferrari next season, and has become increasingly frustrated at both his and his Mercedes team's performance over the last couple of seasons.
Despite this, the seven-time world champion has revealed that he has arrived in Sin City mentally stronger than he has been all year long.
Hamilton's 2024 season in general has been dismal, the star now trailing team-mate George Russell in the drivers' championship, having been out-qualified by his fellow Brit on 16 occasions out of 21.
Now, off the back of two strong practice sessions for Mercedes in Vegas, team principal Wolff has revealed Hamilton may have a good chance of adding to his 105 career race victories this weekend, but is not being lulled into a false sense of security knowing that the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull are all stronger than Mercedes at this current time.
"I think we are dirty track champions," Wolff proudly stated to F1 media after Thursday's running, local time in Vegas.
"FP1 is always great and then the moment the grip kicks in, we've seen that the performances deteriorate. Having said that, I think the gap was pretty big. It's the biggest that we've seen so far in FP1, so we've got to spray some dust for all the sessions tomorrow, in qualifying or something.
"But I don't believe this kind of advantage to the other teams is going to last. I would very much hope that we're not falling behind like we did in the past on some of the tracks, but remain competitive, fight in the front."