Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton is realistic and believes it will be difficult for Mercedes to get their first win of the season against a strong Red Bull team with only three races remaining. The Mercedes driver has more or less given up on achieving a win this season after a possible victory in Austin.

Last weekend in Austin, Lewis Hamilton led the race for a few laps but the Mercedes driver was eventually caught by Max Verstappen with five laps to go. The British driver crossed the finish line in second place, narrowly missing out on a first win for his team after a complicated season.

Mercedes’ stated aim since the start of the year has been to secure at least one win this season, but although Hamilton has come close on two occasions, namely Zandvoort and Austin, the seven-time world champion is clear that Red Bull will be very difficult to beat in the final three rounds of the year.

Red Bull just too fast

“I think we have to be realistic. The Red Bull car has been by far the fastest car all year and it still is,” said Hamilton after the US Grand Prix.

“So we were in the position we were [in Austin] because of our reliability. Because if Charles [Leclerc] was there, and if Perez was there for example, it would have been a different race because they would have been ahead of us. We would have been on the third row.”

Hamilton is correct with his assessment of the current car pecking order. Despite much lauded upgrade packages in Barcelona, Silverstone and at the latest GP in Texas, the silver arrows has made less progress than Mercedes would have us believe.

In fact, had it not been for a series of events such as Verstappen’s tardy pitstop, this website analysed that the delta was 20.9 seconds between Verstappen’s Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton. READ MORE ON THIS

Hamilton realistic about chances of a win

“It was great to start third and be able to fight, but in terms of pace they were ahead of us and that will be the case for the next three races [Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi],

“Unless something bad happens to them [the competitors], it’s very unlikely we’ll have the real pace to be able to compete with them. We will obviously give it our all and we are working on developing a car that can compete with them.”

Despite the fatalism shown by Lewis Hamilton, boss Toto Wolff believes Mercedes have never been closer to a win this year after an “encouraging” performance last weekend in Austin with Hamilton finishing second and team-mate George Russell fifth.

“This weekend was a breakthrough for us and we showed some encouraging performances. Without a doubt, Red Bull are still ahead of us, but I think we are getting closer to them and Ferrari – and that’s a positive result for us.” said Wolff after Austin.

“The next step is Mexico, which we are looking forward to and hopefully we can continue to show our performance. On paper, it should be a track that suits our car, although as we’ve learned this season, it can be a bit unpredictable where we’re actually at.”

Ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, Mercedes is third in the constructors’ championship, 53 points behind Scuderia Ferrari.

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