Although the Brackley team lost its strongest team position since the first race of the 2022 Formula 1 season, in terms of reliability, the Mercedes drivers have yet to have to abandon a single race due to technical problems.
The Austrian Grand Prix was one of the best events of the year for the Germans to date, as Lewis Hamilton finished third despite suffering an accident during qualifying and not having the best possible sprint race.
However, his teammate, George Russell, suffered a little more, as the Race Direction imposed a five-second penalty on him for his contact with Sergio Pérez, which greatly affected the Mercedes driver’s career, who despite this managed to finish in fourth position.
“There was a lot of damage to both cars during qualifying at Spielberg, both to the floor of the car and to its rear wings. Lewis’s car also sustained damage to its suspension and front wing,” said Mercedes technical director, Mike Elliott.
The team’s work was also complicated by the fact that they arrived in Austria with only three new rear wings, but did not calculate that the element would have to be replaced on both drivers’ cars, so Russell was unable to dispose of this part and you had to install an older version on your W13.
“We had a spare rear wing that we could fit but we had to make a decision and finally decided to fit the wing to Lewis’s car,” explained Elliott.
“The downforce on George’s car wasn’t ideal, but anyway, we had to rebuild both cars with very little time left before the start of free practice, which also put our weekend in jeopardy.” Elliott.
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