Lewis Hamilton has revealed that Mercedes did not "expect" to be competing with McLaren or Red Bull ahead of the summer break, due to how poorly the Silver Arrows started the season.
Mercedes started the current F1 season down in fourth in the pecking order and remained there for the opening handful of rounds.
It was not until the Canadian Grand Prix where the Brackley-based team started to show some real promise, following an upgrade package which was introduced in Monaco.
Since Canada, Mercedes has been a contender for podiums, whilst Hamilton won entirely on merit in Silverstone.
George Russell would have won in Spa but was disqualified for his W15 being underweight, whilst he did pick up victory in Austria after Max Verstappen and Lando Norris collided. Hamilton inherited victory in Belgium.
With seven different drivers across four teams having claimed a win in the 14 completed rounds, F1 has proven to be the most competitive it has been in several years.
It is the most number of different race winners since eight drivers won a race in 2012. Hamilton was a race winner in that campaign and believes that the number of drivers winning races this season is a huge boost for the sport.
"I don't have a good memory, so I don't remember back then," Hamilton told select media including RacingNews365. But what I can say is it's great.
"It's really fantastic, I think, for the sport to be having such close teams and drivers. And, the pedigree of drivers at the top today are really elite and amazing."
Behind Red Bull's seven victories, all courtesy of Verstappen, Mercedes is the next most-successful team this campaign with three wins.
Mercedes are in fourth in the constructors' championship but catching Ferrari in third quickly, with most expecting the German manufacturer to claim more victories in the second half of the season.
"Yeah, we didn't expect to be competing with the McLarens or the Red Bulls at this point in the season, with how we started off," added Hamilton.
"So for us to now have closed up, it's going to be one hell of a second half of the season for sure."
Also interesting:
In this special episode of the RacingNews365 podcast, Ian and Nick are joined by former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner! Max Verstappen being under pressure and Sergio Perez surviving are discussed, and a VERY bold prediction is made!
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