Lewis Hamilton has admitted to moments of self doubt after a second successive Formula One season without a win. The 38-year-old echoes the fears of his team principal, Toto Wolff, that Mercedes have a “massive gap to close” to topple Max Verstappen’s all-conquering Red Bull team next season.

Mercedes clung on to second place in the constructors’ championship – and a £10m cash boost – by the skin of their teeth as the Dutch driver ended the most dominant season in F1 history with another victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Another title for Verstappen and another season playing catch-up had been a blow to Hamilton’s confidence, the seven-times world champion conceded in a frank interview with the BBC.

“Ultimately, when you have difficult seasons like this, there are always going to be moments when you’re like: ‘Is it me, or is it the car? Do you still have it? Has it gone?’ Because you’re missing that … when the magic happens, when everything comes together, the car and you, and that spark, it’s extraordinary. And that’s what you’re in the search for,” Hamilton said.

The British driver admitted the signs that the car for the 2023 season was not up to the task were clear in February at Silverstone. “I remember it feeling exactly the same [his misgivings about the previous season’s car]. And that definitely was not a great feeling. I really had high hopes.”

As early as the first race in Bahrain when their no-sidepod flop was abandoned on the eve of the opening race, Hamilton had a sense of foreboding about the coming campaign and frustration with the design team that his changes had not been implemented. “I’m sure there were frustrations, because I had asked for certain changes, and they weren’t done. I think for this year they thought: ‘The fundamentals are good and we just have to go here.’ And it was not the case. That’s why I was frustrated in February, because they hadn’t made the changes I’d asked for.”

It meant a second straight season without a victory for Hamilton – a losing streak which now stands at 45 races – and Mercedes’ first winless campaign in a dozen years. They finished 413 points behind Red Bull, who have long since turned their focus to next year’s machine. Last season, Mercedes were 244 points behind the world champions.

Mercedes have carried Hamilton to six of his record-equalling seven world championships, but he will head for the off-season wondering if he will ever win again, let alone mount a season-long championship challenge.

Wolff said in the wake of yet another disappointing race for Mercedes at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix: “If we are able to give him a car, he will be fighting for a world championship, I have no doubt. But it is clear if you have a car like we have now, you are not at ease with it.”

With only minor tweaks to the sport’s technical rulebook before a complete overhaul in regulations in 2026, Hamilton is worried that Verstappen will be untouchable for the next two years. “We have higher targets than ever before because we’ve got a massive gap to close. That makes it really tricky,” said the British driver.

Yet he maintains that his desire for Formula One racing has not dimmed: “I still love driving. I still love getting into the car,” he added. “When they start the car up and you have all those people around you, the crew, you go down the pit lane, I still get this smile on my face the same as I did the first day I drove.”