Lewis Hamilton has warned Mercedes that their main issue is ‘not finished’ following a difficult start to the 2024 Formula One season due to a deep-seated fear.

The Silver Arrows are currently fourth in the constructors’ championship after four rounds of the year. Mercedes has only 34 points, while Red Bull has 141, Ferrari has 120, and McLaren has 69.

McLaren’s performance in the first four races, earning more than double the points of Mercedes, raises concerns in Brackley. The Woking team sources their power units from Mercedes, whose drivers are now ranked seventh with George Russell and ninth with Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton believes Mercedes’ 2024 woes stem from their 2022 mistakes.Russell has scored 24 of Mercedes’ points so far this season, while Hamilton has scored only 10. The 26-year-old also finished fifth in the Bahrain Grand Prix, sixth in the Saudi Grand Prix, and seventh in the Japanese Grand Prix. Hamilton took seventh place in Sakhir before moving up to ninth place in Jeddah and Suzuka.

Both Mercedes drivers retired at the Australian Grand Prix, with Hamilton going out on lap 15 due to engine failure. Russell retired in P17 after crashing on the penultimate lap while pursuing Fernando Alonso. The Briton was battling the Aston Martin ace for P6.

Hamilton currently believes that Mercedes’ lack of competitiveness at the front of the Formula One field in 2024 is due to persistent issues in maximising the ground effect regulations implemented in 2022. Russell sealed Mercedes’ sole victory since then at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton cautions the Silver Arrows’ difficulties are ‘not finished yet’.Mercedes struck off on their own in 2022 with a breakthrough zero-pod design, but it failed to produce many results. Last season, the Silver Arrows were winless for the first time since 2011, after first implementing the zero-pod ideology before abandoning it.

Hamilton recently disclosed that Mercedes needed to eliminate 90 points of downforce from their 2022 car to control porpoising. Now, the 39-year-old acknowledges that the Silver Arrows’ difficulties are ‘not finished’ because the squad is still playing catch-up after getting off to a bad start.

“We just haven’t yet,” Hamilton said, via quotes by Motorsport Week. “It’s not over yet. But I think with this sport it’s just naturally difficult. If you start on the right foot and the first brick down has got a good foundation, you can just continue to build on it

“I think that’s what we had experienced in the past years. Whereas, when we started with this generation of car, we started with five bricks, good weight, we had to knock it down and try again, knock it down and try again, and take off that performance, basically.

“We made all these changes [and] tried everything. [We] sometimes lost our way, sometimes then found it and then lost it again. I think it’s just very complex.”