Lewis Hamilton described the Red Bull cars as "unbeatable" as he admitted Mercedes are unlikely to break their race-winning duck this season.
No-one driving a car without a Red Bull or Ferrari logo on it has won a race this year. The Silver Arrows would usually be competing with them, but they have struggled to fully bridge the gap after getting their initial development all wrong on their 2022 car.
But since the summer break even Ferrari have been left behind by the outfit based in Milton Keynes. Max Verstappen is on a five-race winning streak, and in three of them he started seventh, 10th and 14th on the grid.
The impossible standard the defending champion is setting in the second half of this season in particular is daunting, even to Hamilton. The Brit has previously been bullish about his chances of a race win in 2022, but now admits it is not a likely scenario.
"We have to be realistic. That Red Bull is almost unbeatable," he said after finishing fifth at Monza. "It's going to take some real doing to beat that car. Performance-wise they are fully ahead of everyone.
"We haven't caught them and we don’t have upgrades coming to overtake them, so it's going to take some fortune going our way. Not impossible, because we could potentially have beaten them in Zandvoort, maybe could have beaten them in Budapest. But [Verstappen] has generally chilled at the front, so you never know the true pace."
Hamilton is used to being the one coasting at the head of the pack in recent years. Since 2014, Mercedes has been the dominant team after adapting to the hybrid era better than anyone else, but this time they are the ones playing catch-up.
While the Brit would certainly prefer to be winning races, he insists he is enjoying having to give everything in the fight for as many points as possible. "[It's] a thousand times more enjoyable, battling with people," he added.
"I remember my first go-kart was like an old kart, we always had to start at the back, old tyres, that's what I've always enjoyed doing. So today, having those battles, is way more fun than starting first. It's a different chapter but I much prefer battles."
