Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes ‘will take a year’ to potentially close the gap on Red Bull ahead of Australian Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton believes it will “take a year” for Mercedes to potentially close the gap and compete with Red Bull again.

Hamilton has endured a challenging start to the season for a second successive campaign, and his Mercedes team are in the process of redesigning their car.

He has recently opened up on the troubles he has been facing with the new W14 car in the opening two races, and how he feels uncomfortable with the positioning of the cockpit.

Ahead of Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, the seven-time World Champion gave an honest verdict on Mercedes’ chances of challenging Red Bull this season.

“It is going to take us the rest of the year to potentially close that gap,” he told the media on Thursday. “If you look at the Red Bull, it is just going to continue to evolve most likely.

“Some cars do plateau in terms of performance. At some point it can’t just keep going. But maybe it can. They have a great team around them and I am sure they will continue to add downforce.

“We just have to make sure when we do make the change hopefully the drop isn’t too far and hopefully it is going to take us the rest of the year for sure to potentially close that gap.”

Red Bull have enjoyed a dominant start to the F1 season after Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez’s one-two finishes in both the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix.

Hamilton’s team-mate, George Russell, added: “I am not going to say we are terribly optimistic. We recognise Red Bull are a second down the road at the moment.”

Red Bull are in a bid to win their another constructors’ championship, while Verstappen is aiming to win his third successive title.

Verstappen has taken an early one-point lead in the standings over Perez ahead of the third race of the season, but the Mexican is “certain” he can edge his team-mate to win his first world title.

“We have a very strong car, a very strong package, a car I feel comfortable with, a car I am working well with and a car I believe, with the direction we are taking in development, I can get the most out of,” Perez said. “I think that is important to be able to stay in the fight throughout the season – to have a car that you can be competitive whatever conditions you are in.

“When you are in the fight for the championship you have got to take your A-game into every single race, you have to try everything you possibly can.”

“If I want to win the championship I have to beat Max weekend in, weekend out and keep this level of consistency throughout the season,” he said. “I think it’s all about consistency and taking it race by race. You can win 15 races but in the other races if you crash and have DNFs it is not enough.”