Lewis Hamilton is driving with a new "feisty and happy demeanour" according to Martin Brundle.
The Mercedes driver has endured a difficult 18 months, going from a regular world championship winner to a driver who can be satisfied with simply getting on the podium. The Silver Arrows have endured a notable drop off since 2021, when the rule changes shook up the grid.
It means Mercedes are very much playing catch up to a dominant Red Bull, but forward strides were made in Barcelona at the weekend. The German outfit bought upgrades and saw Hamilton and George Russell finish second and third respectively, with Hamilton rising from fourth on the grid.
Brundle, commenting on the weekend's action, believes that the Brit has a fresh energy about him, telling Sky Sports : "Hamilton, who is driving with an especially feisty and happy demeanour lately, was a further eight seconds up the road for a solid second place and double Mercedes podium."
Hamilton's second place finish represents his joint best result of the season having also bagged second in Australia earlier this year. The seven-time world champion was particularly quick in the early phases of the race, putting moves on several of his rivals.
He was also able to match Max Verstappen's pace for periods, although the Red Bull driver always seemed to have more in hand. Hamilton admitted after the race that Mercedes cannot match the grid's pace setter but remained optimistic going forward.
The 38-year-old said: "With the current car we have I don't think we'll be matching their performance, but we are working on improving the car. With the current package we are limited to the pace that we had today, but there's a huge amount of work and studying and improvements that we hopefully will have coming in the future.
"Naturally they should probably also be progressing through the year, so we need to be taking big chunks out of them with every step we take. Today they were a good few tenths ahead of us, maybe half a second ahead of us per lap. On a single lap that's a little bit bigger.
"I think we are going in the right direction and I know we have something in the pipeline moving forwards. I'm hoping at least by the end of the year it would be great if we could challenge them. For me I'm more focused on making sure that we have the car next year to challenge them from day one.
"The further we continue to push this car this year, the more that impacts next year also in some ways. The more we learn about this car also sets us in the right direction. It's trying to find the right balance."
