Lewis Hamilton has insisted positive elements of the Mercedes W14 can be salvaged for next year's car despite Team Principal Toto Wolff suggesting it would be 'binned'.
The Silver Arrows again struggled at the start of the season having laboured to third in the Constructors' standings last term, with the zeropod aerodynamic concept proving inconsistent.
Progress was made with an upgrade and conceptual change at the Monaco Grand Prix, with further development taking place in the races since.
Despite Mercedes' ability to take over second in the standings following improved results - led by Hamilton - the W14 remains almost a second off the pace of Red Bull's RB19, with the seven-time World Champion often at a loss as to why there is such a gap.
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Wolff has suggested there is promise being shown in the development of next season's challenger whilst stating the current car would be binned.
But speaking to media including RacingNews365.com, Hamilton insisted: "We won't ever bin the car of course.
"These cars are still masterpieces, really, even if they're not the fastest car in the world.
"Two-thousand people have worked so hard to build these things and they will continue to be a part of our history and our learning curve.
"There will be bits of it that we try to change, try to hold on to some of the positives because there's always positives, good and bad sides, and so we're trying to hold on to the positives.
"With the new direction we have, it's far too early to say we can be optimistic about next year's car because we are just in the process of going into that but I have full faith in the crew that they're going to take it in the direction that it needs to go.
"There's been a lot of learning in these past two years so if we haven't figured it out by next year then obviously we will just keep working away at it, but I'm hoping that they have."
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