It was somewhat surprising and startling for Mercedes in the face of declining form in Austria. Will their development stop?
They already thought that evolution was on, that they were on an upward trajectory, that they were getting close to Red Bull – and then came the Austrian Grand Prix. Mercedes exited Barcelona and Montreal enthusiastically with both races confirming their revamped cars worked. According to them, the first track was clearly suitable for the W14, and they felt the latter was not, which is why they thought Lewis Hamilton’s third place was an encouraging result.
The team expected to do better in Austria than in Montreal, but received worse. They had no chance on the podium, Ferrari passed them, but the two partner teams, McLaren and Aston Martin, beat them by one driver each (Lando Norris and Fernando Alonso), thus only 6-7. They’ve got a place.
Well, scratching and doubting…
“I definitely didn’t expect us to be this bad. I don’t really know the answer to that, really.” Hamilton admitted.
“It’s very surprising, but the car felt very similar to how it felt all last year. That’s the biggest surprise. The car was clearly different from the last two races. In the previous two years we were much better than we are now.”
According to his teammate, George Russell, who jumped forward in the final due to penalties, their decline was evident, which he also took as a surprise. “I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of it. But our car is still the same as it was two races ago in Barcelona, which is where we went up. So the only thing different was the rubber. We have to get this together.”
“It definitely didn’t feel like we wanted to. The cars moved a lot, it was a little worse than any other track, but the speed was a lot slower than we expected.”
“We took a big step back and Lando and McLaren were a big surprise for us. They obviously did something right. Our car is fast in certain conditions and now we have to figure out why it didn’t happen this weekend. You have to get the balance right. It’s a completely different track than Barcelona.” And we weren’t as competitive as the previous two weekends.” He said.
It turns out that the weekend sprint format may have played a role in this: one free practice is often not enough for teams to find settings, and more than once we’ve seen an example of a lack of time driving participants to a standstill for an entire weekend. According to Russell, this may have played a part in it as well.
“Silverstone is going to be interesting for us because it’s obviously track dependent as well. A sprint can be a huge challenge when you don’t get it right the first time, and we certainly didn’t. The pace wasn’t good on Friday, and we knew we were late.” In the long stages. If it had been a normal weekend, the result might have been different in the race.” – Guess the winner of the race for once.
George Russell (Photo: XPB)Team boss Toto Wolff described Sunday as a painful day. “These fluctuations are interesting. On a weekday we were the number one contender for Red Bull, then Ferrari, then Aston Martin, and this time we were bottom of the pack.”
“We were level with the good guys at a high pace, but our car never struck the right balance. We suffered under all circumstances, from misjudgment, over judgment. It has never been better.” – lamented the Austrian.
Mercedes believes that with the development package used since Monaco, the car’s performance has mainly improved in fast corners. Which is also why he feels he has good starting chances at the Silverstone sprint. In addition, another development package will arrive, from which, according to Wolf, they expect another “important” progress. So that they forget the Austrian slap at home.
