Lewis Hamilton was back at his competitive best in front of his home crowd in Silverstone last weekend. There was a time in the race when he was looking like having a genuine shot of winning the race against the Ferraris. But he ultimately had to settle for P3 after the late safety car.

It has been a tough start to the season for the Mercedes driver that has pushed him to stay patient amid the car’s struggles. Before Silverstone, it was looking that Hamilton’s impressive record of winning a race in every season he has raced in might be under threat.

But Hamilton surprisingly mentioned that not winning in F1 is not strange to him. Yet the progress made by the team gives him confidence heading into the rest of the season.

“I’ve had plenty of years in my career… maybe not plenty. But I’ve definitely had years in my career where I haven’t had wins for a period of time. The progress that we’ve made over the past couple of races has definitely given us hope that there’s more to come,” said Hamilton.

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Despite the evidence that Mercedes are back to challenging for race wins in 2022, the 7-time world champion is cautious in his approach.

Lewis Hamilton does not believe that Mercedes are back to their winning ways

Hamilton is still not convinced that the W13 is a winning car despite a strong performance on Sunday. But he believes that the target is also not too far in the future for the team.

“We had an upgrade for the weekend and the race pace was definitely improved. That’s been the strongest part of our car this year in general. It’s definitely helped us get a little bit closer. I don’t think we’re in a winning position yet. But we’re not far away,” said the Mercedes driver.

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It was truly amazing to see the 7-time world champion fighting for the podium in the last few laps of the race. But it would have certainly been interesting to find out if he would have passed Ferraris without the safety car. Well, we’ll never know, but Hamilton is certainly back to his fighting best in 2022.