Mercedes Austria
Mercedes Austria
Many people expected Mercedes to have identical performance in Austria as they did in Silverstone as many believe that Austria and Silverstone have the same style of corners. And while that was proving to be the case in FP1 and the Q1 and 2 for the sprint race, Mercedes’s hopes would come crashing down after both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton would crash their cars in Q3 throwing away every upgrade they had done to the car coming into Austria.
So how did Mercedes fair in team boss Toto Wolff’s eyes? And does he think the team can finally secure a race win in France in 2 weeks time? We;; you’re going to have to stick around to find out! But before we get to it, consider subscribing to the channel to get notified of our latest uploads. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get into it.
As mentioned in the intro, both Mercedes drivers had a horrible start and a horrible end to their qualifying day. It all started in Q1 where Hamilton would be heard on the team radio shouting:
“How far are we off man? This is crazy.”
After the radio message, Hamilton would also be seen in heated talks with Toto at the team’s garage. Obviously, the media would ask about this to which he would reply with:
“It was all internal stuff. I do not want to share what was said. You come here with optimism – you know everyone is working really hard at the factory – and when things just don’t come together, it is disappointing. We underperformed as a team today. There are things we should have done which we did not do but we will work as hard as we can to move up in the Sprint race. Hopefully tomorrow is better weather-wise and we can move forward. We will just keep working hard, but each weekend is a rescue [effort].”
And things would go from bad to worse as both he and George would crash their cars and ending the Q3 prematurely when both of them seemed to have the pace to at least qualify in the top 3. And to add insult to injury as well, many Red Bull fans were heard cheering at the sight of Hamilton’s crash which Lewis and Toto deemed unacceptable and inhumane. In Lewis’s words:
“I don’t agree or condone any of that, no matter what, A driver could have been in hospital and you are going to cheer that?” It is mind-blowing that people would do that, knowing how dangerous our sport is. I am grateful I wasn’t in hospital and wasn’t injured. You should never cheer someone’s downfall, someone’s injury or crash.”
While Toto would say:
“I think we need to speak more to the fans that cheering when a car is in the wall, or booing for a driver that gives an interview, it’s not that we would do with our competitors and enemies, even if you think we would have some animosity out there,” Wolff said. No one should do it. We need to, collectively with F1, educate people.”
But F1 never waits for no man and the team would have to rely on their engineers to get something up and running for the sprint race for the next day. And to give credit where credit is due, the team would deliver, and both their drivers would have a car to race in the following day albeit being different from what they had originally according to both George and Lewis.
But it seemed as though Mercedes would have another incident in the sprint with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly cutting in front of Lewis and colliding with his front tire. Luckily Hamilton would come out of the collision unscathed and would finish the race in P8. Lewis Hamilton would be asked about the incident after the race with Hamilton saying:
“Firstly, I didn’t have a good start,” he said. “Secondly, I don’t understand these drivers. Moving across, I don’t know if they know they are moving across, but it was just unnecessary, [Gasly] had so much space on his right. That is unfortunate for sure. I have got some sort of damage there, I don’t know exactly what but it was a big hit to my front. I’m just grateful I could continue. And then I got another one further up, with the Williams and the Red Bull – they did the same thing. I managed to just survive.”
And as for Lewis’s teammate George Russell, George would finish the sprint race in P4 albeit with complaints throughout the race with the car’s lack of pace. Toto would shed some light about George’s performance by saying:
“ It’s a fight for position and they have an advantage because we are so draggy. And maybe also a bit of performance here, so overall, yeah, you need to do that. Still disappointing. Contrary to what we had in the previous races where we were really good on Sundays. Here, somehow it didn’t come.”
But things would turn around for both drivers come Sunday’s race. Hamilton would cut through the field after starting in P8 all the way to 4th, which in the end became third when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz retired with an engine failure. After the race Lewis would say:
“I really feel great; I’m so happy with today, especially after such a difficult start to the weekend,” said the seven-time world champion, who finished one place ahead of team mate George Russell. We were looking so good in qualifying and then I crashed, and it was about getting your head around that. The team worked so hard to build a new car from me. Naturally that affects everything. I don’t know what they did with those bits that I desired but hopefully we have some new benefits to come after that. This is a great recovery for us as a team to get a third and a fourth. It’s really great points, We’ve just got to keep our heads down and keep chipping away. We are slowly eating into the guys ahead but they are still pretty quick.”
Hamilton would also be ask on the team’s chances to compete with the top 2 teams in Ferrari and Red Bull once the 2nd half of the season comes. TO this he would reply with:
I don’t know why they were so quick here,” said Hamilton, who is the only driver to have reached the chequered flag at every race so far this year. “We’ll just keep pushing. We’re not too bad, some of our laps were comparable so we’re slowly getting there. We just need to keep chipping away.”
And as for his teammate George Russell, George would have a much more eventful race day after battling with Sergio Perez which ended in the 2 making contact with Perez ending up in the gravel. At the time George would be at P4 but would be handed a 5 second penalty by the FIA which he chose to serve in the pit.
George would end up all the way in P17 after his pit stop but would claw his way back up in the points and end the day in P4. After the race, George would be asked about his side on the incident with Perez where he would say:
“With how the race panned out it was a missed opportunity. From my side it was obviously very frustrating to have the first-lap incident. I braked late and braked hard and Checo had a clean line, as soon as he started to turn in I knew we were going to make contact. I was already on the limit with my car, braking and turning as hard as I could, he just had more grip on the racing line. The contact and the penalty is one thing but to get the damage as well, it probably cost me 10 seconds in the first stint and then a 20-second pit stop before coming out in 17th, retrospectively it was okay but I just felt like I expected more.”
George would also be asked on whether or not he thinks the team is now capable of fighting with Ferrari and Red Bull. To this he would reply with:
“The gap is definitely closing, but each time we’ve brought an update it’s been at a circuit that has naturally suited our car so we don’t want to get too carried away.”
Toto would also remain pragmatic on the team’s future when he was asked for his comments saying:
We are somewhere right in the middle of nowhere but I would say if I tried to pick the positives in the race pace today, if we would have, which we didn’t, start right in the top six probably we could have held on to Max [Verstappen] and not be too far away. We’re lacking speed on the straight. I think we are much too draggy, maybe much is too much, but we are draggy. Even more draggy on George’s car. The only rear wing left was a barn door that we put on there but we are too draggy and we seem to be lacking power here. For the first time again, the last few races were really strong, maybe it’s the altitude but it’s something that all the guys will analyse and for sure compensate in the next races.“It’s actually good because we are starting to see that we’re chipping away performance from the leaders which is important. And we find ourselves in a situation which we have always discussed, which is one day after eight consecutive titles that series is gonna break and we want to make it a blip and not some kind of longer cycle.”
The team will have 2 weeks to regain their footing and make adjustments to the W13 before it’ll be race day in France. Where the track is more or less like Silverstone and Austria there are more high-speed corners than low-speed corners which have proven to be more forgiving to their setup.
And while competing for the driver’s champion is out of the question now, Mercedes still remains a strong contender in the constructor’s championship as the W13 has proven to be a reliable car for the team. But what do you think? Was Silverstone the best chance the team had at a race win? Or will the team figure it out somewhere down the line? Let us know in the comment section below and as always, don’t forget to like and subscribe to the channel if you haven’t!
