Lewis Hamilton has described the 2017 Pirelli tyres as "numb" and inconsistent as Mercedes look to overcome their issues with the rubber at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The triple world champion had a weekend to forget in Monaco, qualifying outside the top 10 before finishing seventh, he also continues to believe improvements made by his team won’t be enough to beat Ferrari this weekend.

"We have seen Ferrari are the quickest at the moment so they are favourites," said Hamilton on Thursday.

"But we are working hard to rectify the issues we had at the past race.

"I hope we can attack this weekend. We have some unique bits on the cars that could work well this weekend."

Hamilton has good memories in Canada having scored his first F1 win a decade ago and has won four more times since.

Considering if Mercedes had a big gap to make up to the Scuderia, he added: "Not that I know of."

"We were just focusing on this race, and after the last race, we had some information for them to be working on.

"We didn't have the solutions at that point.”

The tyre issues his team faced, particularly with the ultrasoft compound, have been around since the start of the season in Melbourne. Though Hamilton knows the team is trying to resolve the issue, unpredictability in determining the tyres' readiness out on track is making finding a solution even harder.

"We've definitely done some analysis but we will find whether or not we've made progress this weekend," he explained.

"You push, or you drive slow depending on the temperature of the circuit. And when it comes to doing your laps, sometimes they're ready and sometimes they're not. It's difficult. It's kind of a numb feeling.

"Sometimes the tyres feel exactly the same as when you leave the garage and sometimes they grip up. It's the same for every time”