Mercedes’ design department tripped over its own wit.
There is no Mercedes for the championship this year either.
It’s a message from inside the stable.
The team that dominated the series for years is just as far from the top as it was a year ago. George Russell was sixth and a team mate in the Bahrain time trials that opened the season Lewis Hamilton seventh.
Seven-time champion Hamilton had the first winless season of his career last year. The experience made him tolerate the current, so the British driver could only shake his head in amazement after the session.
Hamilton missed the pole position driver Red Bull About Max Verstappen six tenths.
– I don’t know if our time difference was much of a surprise. In any case, we are after Red Bull, it doesn’t matter what the difference was in the end, Hamilton stated to F1TV.
To the trash
Mercedes’ design philosophy doesn’t work. PDO
In this season’s W14 car, Mercedes continued the familiar design philosophy from last year. The team did not want to start with a clean slate, even though last season Red Bull’s solution wiped the floor for Mersu.
The car’s side pontoons are radically different from those of other leading garages. On the track, the stopwatch has spoken harshly about whether Red Bull or Mercedes succeeded better in the design work.
Team manager Toto Wolff defends his stable’s solution. However, he also admitted that his team is in trouble at the moment.
– We are not fighting for victory on Sunday. The difference to Red Bull is too big. No matter how you look at this through rose-colored glasses, our situation is not good. We cannot be satisfied.
Wolff reckons Hamilton and Russell will drive in Sunday’s race against the Ferraris and Aston Martins. Red Bull runs away in his papers.
The W14 car is still not going to be thrown into the trash can at this stage. But maybe already in 2024.
– We gave this design concept a year to work, because we believed in it. We think we made progress in that last year, but we are still as far behind as we were last season. We have to discuss inside the stable what we are doing. The rules will remain stable for the next few years, but we cannot risk not being able to close the gap at all.
Both Wolff and Hamilton hope Mercedes will have a better shot in the race.
– Hopefully my adjustments will serve better in the race, Hamilton expressed the wish.
Lewis Hamilton was seventh in qualifying. EPA / AOP