Lewis Hamilton gives up on winning F1 race this season and tells Mercedes to be ‘realistic’ in battle with Red Bull

SIR LEWIS HAMILTON believes he has little chance of winning an F1 race this season.

The Mercedes star has won a race every year since he turned pro, stretching back 15 years, but he thinks that run will come to an end.

Mercedes have struggled this year with Hamilton's team-mate George Russell also failing to pick up a win.

The team have lost out on the Constructors Championship for the first time in eight years to Red Bull.

Hamilton, 37, acknowledged it has been impossible to compete with Red Bull and tips Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to dominate the last three races.

Speaking about his chances of a victory, Hamilton told : "I think we really need to be realistic.

"The Red Bull car has been the fastest car by far all year and it is still the fastest car.

"So [in USA] we were in the position we were in through reliability. If Charles [Leclerc] was there, if [Sergio] Perez was there for example, it would have been a different race because they would have been ahead of us. We would have been on the third row.

"It was great to start third and be in a position to fight, but on true pace they were ahead of us and they will be the next three races.

"Unless something drastic happens to any more of them, it's highly unlikely we'll have the true pace to be able to compete with them.

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"We'll give it everything we've got and we're working on a car to be able to fight with them."

Hamilton finished second at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas on Sunday.

But he feels Mercedes are no closer to competing with their rivals and that could mean he fails to set a new record by winning a race in 16 consecutive years.

He is tied on 15 with Michael Schumacher but has the chance to go one better in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi over the next few weeks.