Lewis Hamilton finished on the podium at the first race of the season in Bahrain last week. The Mercedes driver was nowhere near the leaders Red Bull and Ferrari in terms of pure pace. But he gained positions after both Red Bulls retired in the final stages of the race.

There were many concerns regarding the competitiveness of the W13 in Bahrain. At one point, the 7-time world champion was 30 seconds behind Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. But the result gave him and the team some motivation going into Saudi Arabia this week.

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Mercedes will be bringing in some upgrades that might improve the performance of their car.

Lewis Hamilton cautiously confident ahead of the Saudi Arabia GP

As reported by Formule1.nl, Hamilton showed some positivity while speaking to the media ahead of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The 7-time world champion is confident that the team can close the gap on Ferrari and Red Bull in the 2022 season.

He spoke about the upgrades that the team is bringing in this weekend, but he revealed they need to keep working hard throughout the year to get on top of their issues.

” We have worked very hard in recent days. I am very proud of the team that they have put their shoulders to the wheel so much. That they are doing everything to solve the problem we have,” said Hamilton.

” Three days between races is very short, so I don’t expect miracles. Hopefully, however, we have something we can try, and hopefully, it pays off,” said the Mercedes driver.

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Many have predicted that the 2022 season would be a development war between the teams. Since there are new cars this season, the team that develops their cars better and faster than anyone else will prevail.

All the Mercedes fans would hope that the new upgrades can work and make the W13 more competitive. But we cannot expect overnight change in terms of performance, as there are many inherent issues that need to be fixed.

They would hope these new upgrades bring the team closer to Red Bull and Ferrari from this weekend onwards and provide them with an opportunity to compete for race wins.