Mercedes Upgrade
Mercedes Upgrade
If someone were to start watching F1 this season, he or she would have never known that Mercedes were once kings and queens on the grid with 8 titles to their name with how lackluster the team’s start was to this season. But, as of late the Silver Arrows team has picked up their pace and is looking like they are gearing up for a late push in the 2nd half of the season.
So where has this Mercedes been all season long? Will they officially be back in the fight once the season resumes in late August? And what was the team’s secret to their recent success? Well, let’s talk about it then. But before we do, consider subscribing to get updated on our latest uploads. Now that’s out of the way, let’s get started.
This past weekend at the Hungarian Grand Prix may have been Mercedes’ best weekend thus far. As we all can remember George Russell was able to take his maiden pole after he snatched it away from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz at the last second of qualifying. And while this came at the expense of Lewis Hamilton not being able to put in a final lap due to a DRS issue, the 7-time world champion would make amends come race day and finish in P2 and win the fastest lap of the race.
This result obviously would be a big boost to the team’s morale who had admitted that they were at their lowest after Friday’s practice session. So what did the 8-time world champions do overnight to make such a drastic turnaround in the W13’s performance in just 24 hours? Well, Mercedes head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin would shed some light on what the team had to do to the W13 in their Race Debrief of the Hungarian Grand Prix where he would say:
“We had to make a lot of changes overnight. We talked on Friday about some of the things we had done that had taken us in the wrong direction on setup. So, we lost the car balance, it became a mix of oversteer and understeer that the drivers were struggling with, we’d lost overall grip and then on top of that we were managing a system problem that meant we had to run a little bit more cooling than we would normally and also that was affecting our deployment. So, overall, there were quite a few things that contributed to it. We didn’t know that we were going to fix all those, we knew why we were doing each individual change, but it was very exciting to see the pace that both drivers had on Saturday in qualifying.”
Coming into this season, many analysts, experts, pundits, and fans were shocked when Mercedes revealed their car design for this year which featured a sidepod-less design that was the exact opposite of what every team on the grid had designed on their car. And throughout the season Mercedes and its engineers would receive scrutiny from everyone outside of the team citing their design as the main culprit to their problems. But with how the past few races have gone for Mercedes, George Russell believes that the team is headed in the right direction and a drastic restart to the car’s concept would be futile at this point saying:
“At the start of the season we were finishing races a minute behind first position. The last two races we’ve been in within 10 seconds so I think it’s definitely going in the right direction. I don’t think changing car concept is going to make us go any faster, maybe the contrary to be honest. Sometimes you’ve just got to stick to the process and keep on pushing. That’s difficult to do when you’re off the pace and things don’t seem to be going your way. But personally, I believe in every single person within our team and I think we’re making huge progress for the time being.”
On the other side of the garage as well, Lewis Hamilton would share his approval of the team’s recent developments on the W13 saying:
“It’s a great feeling for us, given the year we’ve had, and obviously to see the progress that we’ve started to make. Last week [in France], just getting the second place last week was huge for us already, and this is now two races in a row that George and I have shared a podium, which is fantastic for the team, points-wise. To both finish ahead of the Ferraris is huge for us, given the pace that they’ve had. And for me, obviously, starting the race in seventh and getting up here is a great recovery. I think given the troubles we had through the weekend, that shows that we’ve got really great pace.
Hamilton would also be asked if he thinks this will be a regular occurrence for the team once the season resumes. Hamilton would reply with:
I hope so. That’s what we’re working towards. I think today there was potential for… I think this weekend, there was a potential for a win. You saw George on pole. I think if we had both been up there, I think we probably could have worked a bit better together as a team. One of us would have had to support each other strategy-wise. But I think if we are able to take this pace into the second half of the season for sure we can start to fight with the guys. This is the first time we’ve been able to fight and battle with a Ferrari. That’s huge for us. I think the Red Bulls probably still are ahead. The fact that Max started 11th (sic) and spun and still was 10 seconds ahead says enough about their car but I think we still have made huge progress and huge steps. And so to have this consistency and two double podiums in these last two races gives us great hope and a huge push for the second half.”
Now that both drivers who have their stamps of approval on the direction the team is headed, next question is where do they go from here? Well Andrew Shovlin would reassure Mercedes fans that the team will be as busy as ever and will continue to push on with a plethora of upgrades yet to come with a lot of it coming once the season resumes in Spa.
“Well, we’ve got more coming. We are trying to bring some performance to Spa that will hopefully close that gap, we haven’t got far to go now. But we’ll keep developing the car for a little while now. We’re quite excited though, the last few races have been the most fun we’ve had all year and we are just hoping that we can take that extra step because we definitely want to be winning races in the near future, so we are working hard to try and achieve that. This last one was particularly satisfying because we weren’t relying on the misfortune of anyone dropping out with a reliability problem. The car pace was also very good, and it is always nice to have a good race before you go into that period of holiday. The most satisfying thing though is to see where the car is in terms of pace now in qualifying and in the race. We had a lot of ground to make up from the start of the year, we’ve been working really hard trying to bring bits to every race and it is really satisfying now to see that we are racing with the Ferraris, with the Red Bulls right to the front.”
With the team’s recent resurgence, many fans believe that the true battle this season isn’t for the title anymore thanks to the incompetence of Ferrari’s strategists that have given Max Verstappen and Red Bull a seemingly insurmountable lead in both championships. So many fans now have shifted their focus to see who comes out on top between Ferrari and Mercedes in the constructors’ championship. And while many may see this as a worthwhile focus for the rest of the season, team boss Toto Wolff simply doesn’t. In his words:
Second is the first loser. For me, whether it’s second or third in the Constructors’ championship is not so relevant compared to really racing and being at the front. Developing the car so we can win races on merit. Beat the Ferraris, beat the Red Bulls and prepare for next year, rather than really care about the championship position.
And in the teams’ battle against Ferrari and Red Bull, Toto still believes that the team has a lot more work to do to close down on both Ferrari and Red Bull saying:
I don’t want to say now suddenly we are right back into the game and we can win races. Because I don’t think that’s the case. I think we landed well in Budapest on Saturday [with Russell’s pole lap] and we reaped the results [in the race], but I don’t think we are close enough to Ferrari and Red Bull to really fight them yet. Lots of learning [still to do], and it’s also important to get it wrong.
And there you have it guys? So what do you think? Will Mercedes be able to make a late-season push once the season resumes? What are their chances to be back at the top next season? 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!
