Hamilton knew Mercedes would be behind from ‘moment I drove’ W14

Mercedes have been pessimistic about their chances of returning to title contention ever since the launch of their W14 challenger and have conceded they expect to start the campaign on the back foot. 

Red Bull are the outright favourites heading into this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix and are thought to hold a clear margin over the chasing pack that is believed to consist of Ferrari, Mercedes and Aston Martin. 

• Hamilton hits back at Button and Hill over new Mercedes contract
• Mercedes’ new rear wing revealed ahead of Bahrain GP 

And the seven-time world champion admitted that Mercedes are “not where we want to be to start the season”. 

“I knew from the moment I drove the car, the challenge we’d be facing,” Hamilton said. 

“On a positive note, not having the bouncing this year is a huge, huge plus. Trying to understand what the problems were while having bouncing made it difficult to figure out what those were.

“We don’t have that now so now we can just focus on pure performance. I’m encouraged to see the focus and courage of everyone in the team, just so focused on getting us back to the top.

“We’re not where we want to be to start the season, but this still is a multi-championship-winning team and group of people.”

Hamilton said he expects two-time world champion Max Verstappen to fully capitalise on Red Bull's apparent advantage. 

"Hopefully those behind will continue to apply pressure [to Red Bull]. Ferrari have a decent package, Aston have a decent package and we are hunting too," he added. 

"I don't think Max will slip up. He is a world champion and I wouldn't question his determination and focus.”

Mercedes endured a mixed pre-season test in Bahrain but Hamilton’s teammate George Russell stressed the team have been able to fix early handling and balance issues “pretty easily”. 

“We had a really good time between the test and the race to analyse what happened throughout the test,” the 25-year-old explained. 

“There were a few things going on with the car that we didn’t quite expect, but we’ve been able to resolve pretty easily. Just working in slightly the wrong window.

“So we’ve put that change in for this weekend, we were running a different rear wing in the Bahrain test, just for some correlation work. And that wasn’t an optimal rear wing for Bahrain either.

“So there’s definitely positive signs but I’m not going to sit here saying we’re going to find that laptime deficit to Red Bull. But I’m definitely sitting here in a more comfortable place than I probably was on Friday night.”