Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes is now in the process of building after determining the new W15 is a better platform to work from.
The Silver Arrows have a tough race at the season opener in Bahrain, as they were hit by an unexpected engine temperature problem that both cars had.
George Russell slipped from second to fifth, while Hamilton moved up to seventh after starting from ninth.
The seven-time world champion reported battery problems at the start of the race and also had problems with brake temperatures and a broken seat.
Despite these troubles, the Briton described the Bahrain Grand Prix as a “super average race.”
“I feel good – I don’t feel down,” Hamilton said of his race.
“But what I feel is that the last few years we have had all these problems. And we spent a few races undoing all those issues, like trying to figure out what those issues were, as opposed to now that we have the platform.”
“So now it’s a process of building from here and I think we’re a great team in that,” he claimed.
Hamilton faced a number of problems during the race, losing the lead to his rivals in the early stages.
“For a while it was like my battery was dead, so down the stretch I was just easing off [the gas] the whole way,” he replied when asked about his problems.
“So I lost a lot from McLaren. I fixed it in a few laps, and it took a good 10 laps: I lost a lot of seconds because of that.”
“And then, after that, I was just trying to get back to it, and catch up, as soon as we fixed it. And then there was a slight overheating of the brakes. Overall, the performance was …”
Regarding the brake temperature issue, he added: “We didn’t know how it was going to be today, but it was definitely worse than we planned.”
One of the rare highlights for Hamilton was using an undercut to pass Piastri and overtake the McLaren driver as he exited the pits.
“Yes, I had a little fun. And then I hunted at the end, I felt braver towards the end,” he claims.
“But the gap was so big, I lost so much at the beginning of the race that unfortunately I just fell out of it,” added the Mercedes driver.
