Lewis Hamilton plays down hopes of starting F1 season with a win

Story by Reuters

Updated 1519 GMT (2319 HKT) March 12, 2022

Lewis Hamilton drives during day three of F1 testing at the Bahrain International Circuit on March 12, 2022 in Bahrain.

(Reuters)Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton played down his chances of starting the Formula One season with a win and said on Saturday his Mercedes lacked a 'considerable amount' of pace.

The season begins in Bahrain next week and Hamilton, hoping to win back the title fromRed Bull's Max Verstappen after a controversial end to the 2021 season, took the underdog position.«At the moment, I'm sure everyone can figure that out, we are not the quickest,» the 37-year-old Briton told reporters on the final day of pre-season testing at the Sakhir circuit.«I think Ferrari look to be the quickest and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us or McLaren. We're currently not at the top.»Asked whether he had any concerns about his ability to fight for the championship, Hamilton said it was too early and expressed confidence in his team's proven ability to work through any problems.F1 world champion Max Verstappen signs new deal with Red Bull Racing until 2028Read MoreMercedes have won the last eight constructors' championships.Hamilton said the new car had shown decent reliability and the team had got through their test programme but it was clear there remained much to do.«At the moment I don't think we'll be competing for wins,» he said.«There is potential within our car to get us there, we've just got to learn to be able to extract it… we have some hurdles to overcome.»Next week we'll get a much better showing of our pace but I think people will be surprised, maybe. People keep talking about (whether) we're talking ourselves down or not but it's a bit