Lewis Hamilton fears Mercedes will not be in contention for world championship

Lewis Hamilton fears he will not be in contention to battle for a record-breaking eighth world championship.

Just one week out from the season-opening race in Bahrain, a downbeat Hamilton said Mercedes are behind Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team and Ferrari in the pecking order.

The 37-year-old was speaking just moments after his final action in testing before next Sunday’s curtain-raiser.

“It is too early to have those kind of thoughts about the world championship, but at the moment I don’t think we will be competing for wins,” said Hamilton.

“I am sure everyone can figure out that we are not the quickest. Ferrari look to be the fastest, and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us, or McLaren. We are currently not at the top.”

Mercedes struggled in testing last year, only for Hamilton to beat Verstappen at the first race.

And following six days of pre-season action, it has been suggested that the team, which has powered Hamilton to five of the last seven titles and won the past eight constructors’ championships, is yet to show its true potential.

However, Hamilton, said Mercedes have been disturbed by Formula One’s greatest upheaval of its technical rulebook in a generation.

Hamilton continued: “It feels a lot different to last year. It doesn’t look as good.

“We have far bigger challenges and they are not one-week turnarounds. They will take a little bit longer. I am told we have a considerable amount of pace to find.

“There is potential within our car to get us there. We just have to learn to extract it and fix the problems which is what we are doing. But we have hurdles to overcome.

“Next week we will get a better showing of our pace but people might be surprised. We are being told we are talking ourselves down, but it is a