The Mercedes team confirmed that they would introduce their last update package of the season at the 2022 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix, something that would be a step forward in the aspirations of a team that, after eight courses in a row, gave up the world throne of builders to Red Bull, which with the pain of losing its founder Dietrich Mateschitz , were proclaimed world champions for the fifth time in their history.
The weekend started quite well for the Brackley team, and in qualifying they managed to take over the second row of the grid after benefiting from the penalties for the component changes in the power units of Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez. As a result, Lewis Hamilton took third place and George Russell fifth , although the team’s boss, Toto Wolff , assured that they could have been up to three tenths faster on Saturday, which would have put them on a par with the RB18 from the Mexican.
Already in the race, the Germans saw how the youngest of the couple fell positions due to the accident with Carlos Sainz at the start, but with the seven-time champion they remained in second position that even became first until the final laps. Due to Max Verstappen’s long-run pace and his tire management, he was able to overtake Lewis Hamilton, who dreamed of a victory that would make him tie with Michael Schumacher in terms of wins in consecutive seasons.
Although he did not succeed, he added a new podium that tastes like glory after being aware that Mercedes has come a long way with the W13. The director of the group, after celebrating the place of his driver with champagne, acknowledged that the 2023 car may have similarities with the current one, but that it will not be the same.
“I think the DNA of the car is going to change for next year, that’s clear, it doesn’t necessarily mean that our bodywork is going to look very different, but certainly what is part of the DNA, the architecture, will change. for next term,” Wolff said.
“Maybe we expected too big steps sometimes, but it was good to see where we were this weekend, it went well in qualifying,” said the Austrian. “We could have done a very good lap, but the drivers couldn’t put it all together, it was a step forward. As long as the trajectory is up, it’s like the share price, there will be ups and downs.”
Lewis Hamilton watched as Max Verstappen easily overtook him on the long back straight of the Circuit of the Americas with DRS , suggesting that despite upgrades they were still struggling with top speed, in a replay of the duel lived in 2021 for the title.
“There are several reasons for this, one is that our car is too slow in general. That is something we have to solve for next year, and the cost limit plays a role, we cannot produce an infinite number of low-resistance parts. or spend a lot of time in the wind tunnel to find solutions,” said the head of the Germans.
“I have to bite my tongue, because sometimes this year I have said we should be good at a particular track, we didn’t and it was the other way around. So on paper Mexico looks good, our car should be effective at clean air, so hopefully we can go well in the race,” said Wolff.
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