The German outfit has not had the best possible start to the 2022 Formula 1 season as its W13 was unable to catch up or come close to the pace of leaders Ferrari and Red Bull.
Left in a situation where they couldn’t move forward or were at risk from behind, Mercedes said they simply took the opportunity to test a few things and despite this, Lewis Hamilton eventually managed to climb to third place on the podium.
“In a way it was a new situation for all of us, because we are in a kind of no man’s land between fourth and sixth position,” explained Mercedes boss Toto Wolff.
“That allows us to experiment more, and I think trying the hard tires was worth it. It was very different to the other strategies of the drivers in the lead and clearly it didn’t work for us at all. So more mileage, more laps more learning”.
Wolff says there is no doubt that Mercedes has the third fastest car at the moment, but acknowledges that it needs to improve in many areas.
“Fifth and sixth would have been a reflection of where we are,” he said. “I think we were competitive in the first couple of laps on the soft tire and we were able to keep up the pace, I even think we were quicker than some of the guys at the front. But we had more degradation.”
“However, it was a useful test for us. We tried the hard tyre, which obviously didn’t work. We lost a second a lap and we lost a second on the medium as well, we weren’t able to get any performance out of them, so we have a lot of learning ahead of us.” “.
“There are many areas where we need to improve in order to be able to compete again with those who are at the top at the moment.”
Mercedes continues to struggle to find the sweet spot in its car setup to maximize performance while minimizing porpoising .
The team is convinced that the car’s current set-up has far more potential than it can deliver, largely due to the compromises it has to make to limit the car’s famous bounce.
For this reason, Wolff is clear that the answer to his current situation does not go through putting new aerodynamic parts on the car.
“I think more than just bringing in new parts, it’s about understanding how we can unleash the performance that we think the car has, or expect the car to have,” he said.
“Before putting parts in it for performance, that’s what I would focus on.”
Despite this, Wolff accepts that the team needs to take a big step forward in terms of performance before they can think of wins, and reckons the situation looks bleak at the moment in terms of their Worlds chances.
“It’s too early to look at the championship as it is, but if we look at the current hierarchy, it seems very, very far away, it’s a very long shot, I can’t even think of being in contention for any of the championships.”
“But if I look at it from the perspective of a single race weekend, we’ve probably got as many points as we could get. But realistically, when you’re third on the grid, you can’t really think about winning.
