Lewis Hamilton optimistic Mercedes will be competitive at Singapore Grand Prix

For the early part of the 2022 campaign, Mercedes struggled with various issues including the much-publicised effects of porpoising and thanks to a number of changes and tweaks the W13 is looking like it could end the team's winless streak with six races remaining.

Hamilton returns to Singapore for the first time since the last race there in 2019 at the Marina Bay Circuit, where he has won four times in the past.

The Marina Bay track has always been bumpy and a very tough place to race largely due to the hot and humid conditions, plus it is a street circuit.

The track has been re-surfaced and improved since 2019 and Hamilton is hoping they get a good, smooth performance out of their car.

"We hope that the car works better here, but it really depends how bumpy it is. The bumps often set the car off and upset the car in a lot of instances," Hamilton said.

"Maybe the car will be fine, maybe it won't. We're just going to try and have the best weekend with whatever we're faced with."

The Mercedes has generally struggled at street circuits, as was the case in Monaco and Baku, and Hamilton is hoping that the lessons learnt from their previous struggles will help them to make an impact at the Marina Bay Circuit.

"We've learnt a huge amount about the car, which is natural for everyone, but it's definitely a huge help knowing where the working window is, what the working range is," Hamilton stated.

"We're able to predict, pretty much, where we're going - whether it will work in one place compared to another. Also, the limitations of the car, we know where those limitations are and we just have to try to work around them. We're in a much better place, I think, than we've ever been, so I hope that we're not far away."

George Russell, Hamilton's team-mate, is also looking forward to how the Mercedes will fare in Singapore's traditionally tough conditions.

"We'll be able to tell you after about three laps on track tomorrow. It's quite interesting, you know so early… In Zandvoort, probably our most competitive race of the season, Lewis and I knew after two or three laps that it was going to be a strong weekend for us," Russell said.

"It's a bit different here, the track's going to be getting rubbered in, it's not been driven on for three years, so it's going to be quite dirty and low grip. You have to evolve with the circuit; you can have a good Friday but the track's going to be different on Saturday, different again on Sunday.

"There's always Safety Cars here, adapting to the strategy, so it's not a straightforward race - but it should be better than what we saw [in low-downforce configuration] at Monza and Spa," Russell added.