Lewis Hamilton and George Russell said they believe a win for Mercedes is “close” as the Formula 1 season resumes at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Mercedes have had a difficult season but progress in recent races culminated with their first double podium at the last race before the summer break in Hungary.
Hamilton said he “definitely” believed a win was imminent.
Team-mate Russell added he “absolutely shares that confidence”.
“It is based on the fact we have been making huge progress,” said Russell.
Mercedes, who have won a record eight consecutive constructors’ titles since 2014, started the year with their least competitive car since 2012.
But Hamilton has scored podiums in the last five consecutive races and Russell started the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole before both drivers finished on the podium for the first time this season in the race.
Hamilton said: “We have been improving. We have had this consistency in recent races and great progress the team is making.
“The car is becoming more of a racing car – which is not particularly what it was at the beginning of the year – more like a normal racing car in terms of its characteristics, and the last race was the best showing we’ve had so far and that was a huge boost that we can close the gap.
“It will naturally continue to be tough. The other guys are doing an amazing job but I do believe we can close the gap.”
Russell, who is fourth in the championship heading into the final nine races of the season, said he believed Mercedes should have the ambition of overhauling Charles Leclerc and Ferrari and finishing second in the drivers’ and constructors’ championships.
Russell is just 20 points behind Leclerc, who is 80 points off championship leader Max Verstappen, with Hamilton 12 points off his team-mate. Mercedes are 30 points behind Ferrari in the constructors’ championship, which is comfortably led by Red Bull.
Russell said: “We are in a position now where we can probably fight for second in both championships.
“Obviously we go in with the fighting spirit and we want to win every race and the championship but being realistic Red Bull and Max are doing an exceptional job and they are a long way ahead of everyone else.
“But I guess we want to be the highest points scoring team in the second half of the season. That has to be our target.
“Second in both championships is not far away. The learning we will do in the second half of the season will give us confidence for next year as well.”
Mercedes have an upgrade at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“We have a few things to put on the car that we are pretty confident should bring some performance but I expect a lot of the teams to be doing a similar sort of thing,” he said.
“We are also going to be bringing more performance to the car in the coming races and I think we learned a lot in the last few races prior to the summer break.
“It has been really inspiring to see how this team has pulled together through the tough moments at the start of this year. And seeing how we have closed that gap, I think there is plenty more to come.”
Mercedes also hope a rule change that imposes tougher controls on floors to prevent them flexing could help them compared to Red Bull and Ferrari.
“It definitely changes nothing for us so it is not going to make us faster or slower,” he added. “We don’t know for sure what it’s going to do to our competitors.
“It is not going to make anybody faster but it may slow some teams up slightly. There are no guarantees of that but let’s see how it pans out.”