Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, admitted his team has their work cut out for them this year after finishing 10th in Saudi Arabia.
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Toto Wolff, Mercedes’ team principal, described the Silver Arrows’ current situation as the reigning world champions lacking the speed to compete for victories – or even the podium – based solely on performance. Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, admitted his team has their work cut out for them this year after finishing 10th in Saudi Arabia, with teammate George Russell fifth as Red Bull and Ferrari battled for victory.
Mercedes is in the unusual position of being third-best with a car they are struggling to get the most out of after competing for both titles every year since the turbo hybrid era began in 2014. “We have been right in the middle of those fun games [at the front] for the last eight years,” said Wolff. “It’s extremely painful to not be part of those fun games, and by quite a chunk of lap time deficit.”
“We’re not going to rest until we’re back in the mix. It’s no fun at all. It’s an exercise in humility and it’s going to make us stronger in the end, even though it’s not fun right now,” he added.
According to Wolff, all of the teams have struggled to understand the phenomenon known as porpoising or bouncing, which is affecting the new-for-2022 cars, with Mercedes being among the most perplexed.
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“I think we’re not running the car where we’re wanting to run it [in terms of set-up], and therefore it’s very difficult to really assess what the lap time deficit is if we were able to run the car lower,” added Wolff. “I would very much hope that the gap is very much closer to what we have seen [in Saudi Arabia], but there are deficits everywhere.”
Mercedes are currently in second place in the constructors’ standings, with 38 points – one more than Red Bull, who failed to score with either car in race one – but they are 40 points behind leaders Ferrari ahead of next weekend’s Australian Grand Prix.
