The beginning of the season for the Mercedes team since the beginning of the hybrid era in Formula 1 had always been pleasant, with an overwhelming dominance over the rest of the grid or, at least, with a car worthy of finishing at the top of the table. podium.
However, this 2022 with the renewed technical regulations, things have gone wrong for the Brackley team, with a W13 very different from what they expected. In the first five rounds they could only finish in the top three thanks to unexpected events in the Ferrari and Red Bull cars, with Lewis Hamilton in Bahrain and George Russell in Australia.
With the arrival in Spain, the usual place to deploy the great improvements, Mercedes was able to put one more gear and challenge the championship leaders from qualifying, where its drivers were in fourth and sixth position respectively.
In Sunday’s race, a sudden retirement from Charles Leclerc and run-offs from Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen put Russell in contention even for victory, a sign that the Silver Arrows have already closed the gap.
The head of the German team, Toto Wolff , spoke to the media after the event, and continued with his speech about going little by little this year: “I think we are learning with practice. This regulation has caught us off guard to a certain extent. mode”.
“Step by step, we are understanding what we have to do to bring performance back to the car,” said the Austrian. “This weekend we have made another big step forward, we may have halved the gap to the frontrunners.”
“But there’s still a long way to go to be up there in the fight. That being said, we were third with George [Russell], and that’s good. His driving was amazing, the defense, the positioning. I’m very proud and happy to see that, to a star or a great driver in the making,” explained Wolff.
“With Lewis, we had the fastest car today. He was 50 seconds behind at the end and he caught up, in some phases of the race he was the fastest, and that shows the potential that the car has,” said the boss of Mercedes.
Despite adding 25 more points in the constructors’ table, the Germans are still third, a considerable distance behind Red Bull and Ferrari. It seems very unlikely that he can defend the title he won last season, but for Toto Wolff nothing is impossible.
“What I wanted to say is that today I have seen a car that has reminded me of those from previous seasons, in which you are more than 30 seconds behind the entire peloton, and you reach the top, close to the podium,” said the leader of Mercedes.
“And that is very hopeful, it shows that we have taken another step,” he continued. “Can we fight for a world championship? Sure we can, but we just need to have a car that is capable of finishing first and second.”
“I think we have reason to believe that we can do it, but also if you look at the odds, they are against us. Motorsport is a different sport, today we have seen that Ferrari have not scored many points even though they should have, we are working. to the fullest to get back in the fight,” Wolff said.
The boss of the Germans also indicated in what he thinks they are stronger, although he does not predict such a positive Monaco Grand Prix next week: “I think it is small gains everywhere, the engine performance is good, Handling is in a good spot, and downforce balance has worked well this weekend, so this is where we want to get the car in terms of performance.”
“We have been off the pace this weekend in the slow corners in the last sector, due to overheating,” explained the Austrian. “So that might be different in Monaco, but in the past, it wasn’t the place where we did the best.”
“Maybe because the car was the size of an elephant, but it would be interesting to see where we are that weekend. to be able to explain why this is so, but it will be another learning point, at least, to get back into the fight,” Wolff said.
