Mercedes Is Still Expecting Some Intense Formula One Weekends

Lewis Hamilton & George Russell were vying for victory at the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, but a late virtual safety car and safety car period dashed their hopes. This comes after Russell took the team’s first pole position of the season at the Hungarian GP before the summer break, where he led the run early on before finishing third. Mercedes claims that the lessons it learned at the challenging Belgian track of Spa-Francorchamps have helped it better grasp how to get the most out of the durable W13.

While the team is confident in its ability to anticipate the vehicle’s needs, leader Toto Wolff notes that specific courses, especially rough locations like Austin, may serve to trip it up. “Our performance is largely ingrained in the car notion as it is,” he said, “but we now know better how everything interacts.” We can be even more specific in tuning the car to optimize for that narrow efficiency window. However, there is the possibility that certain upcoming races may prove to be very challenging for us, while others may be of a higher caliber. 

Something we said was Austin, and it has the potential to be a challenging situation. So, therefore, I think it’s crucial to maintain a natural tone. We can’t go out and try to win every race, but we must go back to where we were last year to improve next season. 

Hamilton & Russell have struggled with a lack of straight-line speed, adding to the W13’s dislike of rough tracks (the car can’t run as close to the ground as necessary to deliver its peak downforce). 

According to Wolff, the most important thing right now is learning what has to be done to improve next season, so the car performs better everywhere. He said that the bad one at Spa was necessary to understand why things were going well in Zandvoort.

Strange as it may seem for a mobile research lab equipped with cutting-edge technology, the data don’t seem to add together this year. Now we’re trying to piece together the puzzle using the data gathered from the screen. For the next year, we’ve included some new jigsaw pieces for you to figure out. But, as I said before, I don’t expect the weekends to be like this every week until the end of the year. 

Other tracks may have a significant amount of drag that prevents drivers from taking their cars to the limits they’re capable of, while some courses have more undulations, making driving more challenging. So, unfortunately, we will lose the next seven races in a row. After the team’s security car gambles at the Dutch GP, Wolff has hinted that they may be ready to take extra chances this year in their pursuit of a victory. 

Wolff says he’s ready to risk problems in exchange for a win, even though the decision to keep Lewis Hamilton out on used mediums for the restart backfired. Every day, he said, “I may slightly threaten all the components for succeeding the race,” rather than firmly settling for second or third.