Charles Leclerc disagrees with Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes star's woes continue

Charles Leclerc is not too surprised at Mercedes' struggles this season, but he has disagreed with Lewis Hamilton's assessment that their title challenge is already over. It's been a frustrating season so far for Mercedes having found themselves battling in the midfield through the opening seven races.

George Russell has also outperformed Hamilton in the last six races, although some luck has been on the young Brit's side with safety cars and traffic impeding the seven-time world champion. Speaking after his 13th-placed finish at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Hamilton admitted that his chances of winning the world title were already over.

"I am out of the championship, and there's no question about that. It has been a weekend to forget," he said.

Things haven't improved much for the 37-year-old since and he finished down in eighth last time out in Monaco. Meanwhile, it's been a tense battle at the top of the standings between Ferrari's Leclerc and Max Verstappen.

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The Red Bull driver currently leads Leclerc by nine points, but Sergio Perez is also in close proximity. Ferrari and Red Bull have set the pace so far, but Mercedes have shown signs of improvements on their W13 in recent weeks.

And Leclerc believes it won't be long until Mercedes are battling for race wins once again.

"I think that at some point every team will stop winning," Leclerc told Motorsport-total.com. "It's always strange when such a dominant team is in trouble at the beginning of a season."

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He added: "I wouldn't write them off for a long time because I know what a strong team they are. What they have achieved in the past was no coincidence. It's the result of when