Lewis Hamilton believes it is “likely” Red Bull will win every grand prix this season but is still hopeful Mercedes can provide him with a car that will recapture the spirit of 2021.

Upgrades introduced on the W14 at the Monaco Grand Prix have thrust Mercedes and Hamilton back into podium contention at least following a sluggish start to the campaign.

After finishing runner-up to dominant Max Verstappen in the Spanish Grand Prix, the seven-time F1 champion followed that up with a third-place finish behind the Dutchman and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in Canada last weekend.

The trio were covered by just over 14 seconds as Red Bull and Verstappen were given as close to a test as they have faced this year.

Mercedes has finally rediscovered the right path with its aerodynamic development, and whilst considerable strides still have to be made to catch Red Bull, there are now glimmers of hope on the horizon.

Appreciating Red Bull and Verstappen are relatively uncatchable at present, Hamilton said: “It’s not a frustration anymore, if it ever was.

“You know how it is, and you know what you’re faced with, and there’s nothing I can do about their amazing performance.

“It’s likely that they will win every race, moving forwards, this year, unless the Astons and us put a lot more performance on the cars, or their car doesn’t finish.

“It’s not easy with the regulations to find the amount of performance that they have, advantage-wise. They’ve got to be 30 points up on us in certain points through the lap and we’ve got some work to do.”

With a further upgrade due for the British Grand Prix, and another before the summer break in August, Hamilton has to believe he could again challenge Verstappen at some point this season, as he did during their ‘war’ two years ago.

On that occasion, what proved to be a season-long feud went down to the wire at the final race in Abu Dhabi, with Verstappen claiming his first title after a last-lap pass on Hamilton that had followed a highly contentious safety car period.

“I’m happy to be back in the mix,” said Hamilton, after scoring back-to-back podiums for the first time since a trio of runner-up finishes in Austin, Mexico City and São Paulo last year.

“I’m just hoping at some stage we can have it all a little bit more level so we can get back to some of the good races we had back in 2021.”

Assessing a top three who between them have won 11 F1 titles, Hamilton added: “And to have all three of us in a super-tight battle would be sick.”