Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes’ progress means he has confidence in the squad’s ability to claim a grand prix victory before the end of the season.
Mercedes has struggled with its W13 through the first half of the year and has trailed Red Bull and Ferrari, ostensibly bringing its eight-year reign of Formula 1 to a close.
It has crept closer to the front in recent events, with Hamilton recording back-to-back podiums in Canada and Britain, having led for the first time in 2022 in front of his home crowd.
Mercedes brought a raft of upgrades to Silverstone and senior figures from the team were buoyed by the gains it unearthed on the W13.
“A long way back, earlier this year, I definitely wasn’t sure that we’d get a win in this car,” said Hamilton, who is in the midst of the longest drought of his career.
“That was definitely not the way we like to think but it was that feeling that ‘Jesus, there’s a long, long way to catch everyone up’. But definitely hugely encouraging.
“For a long, long time, we would make changes and not see it do what it says it was going to do and 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 two races which were quite strong and that’s really encouraging us in the right direction and that there really is potential in the car.
“With a little bit more digging and a little more hard work, hopefully we can get closer to winning a race, so I truly believe we can win a race win this year.”
Hamilton led at Silverstone and was in contention for victory against the Ferrari drivers until the late safety car phase effectively neutralised the field.
Hamilton went on to finish third, having lost out to Sergio Perez, before passing the tyre-limited Charles Leclerc.
“Definitely in Silverstone there was definitely potential to win the race,” he said. “But with our current performance we’re not on exactly the same level as the two teams ahead.
“We needed everything to align, so we didn’t need that Safety Car at the end. We needed not to have lost the time in the pit stop. In a perfect world, if we didn’t have the crash at the beginning, I would have been third. I feel like things all happen for a reason.
“Coming here, we’ve always struggled in Austria, so it’s going to be hard to win here knowing the combination of corners, but not impossible. The weather is up and down.
“I’m hoping that I’ll be pleasantly surprised tomorrow, but I might be wrong. I’ll find out. But I’m staying hopeful. The best thing you can do is arrive hopeful and positive and navigate from there.”
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