Mercedes is one of the teams that has been most successful in the history of the sport. Since Formula 1 introduced hybrid engines in the 2014 season, the German team has managed to win 7 drivers’ championships in a row (6 for Lewis Hamilton and 1 for Nico Rosberg), while winning a total of 8 consecutive constructors’ championships (2014-2021).
Mercedes is one of the teams that have one of the best pairs of drivers, which is made up of George Russell and the seven-time world champion, Lewis Hamilton. Despite the fact that they are not currently in the fight to be world champions, since it seems that Red Bull Racing has it in their pocket, Mercedes has managed to position itself in second position ahead of Aston Martin and Ferrari, teams that seemed stronger at the beginning of the year.
Mercedes after 12 races has a total of 5 podiums (1 for Russell and 4 for Hamilton), with P2 being the best position in which the seven-time world champion has finished, while Russell has only achieved one P3. Despite not yet having a win, Lewis Hamilton has already managed to take pole position once, hinting that the German manufacturer can continue to improve and trying to close the gap that currently exists between Red Bull and Mercedes.
However, not everything has been great for the German team. We have seen some internal incidents that perhaps have not had much of an impact on the results, however, Toto Wolff, who serves as the team principal for the German brand, has made it clear to us that it is something that he wants to eradicate within the team.
Photo credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team
An extremely clear example of this was the small collision that the two Mercedes drivers had during Q2 of the Spanish Grand Prix, held at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. By the time the two drivers were on fast laps, the two Britons were pushing their W14 to the limit on the main straight of the circuit, Hamilton tried to pass Russell on his left-hand side, however, Russell moved in the same direction, causing a small collision but that did cause damage to the front wing of the seven-time world champion.
More recently, during the sprint shootout at the Belgian Grand Prix, we were also able to observe communication problems within the German team, predominantly in the strategy during the sprint shootout session. Hamilton was on provisional pole but finished in P7 as Russell blocked him on the final runs as the track dried out.
Toto Wolff has commented that these communication problems are a topic of interest, and he wants them to be eradicated within the team.
“I think [the miscommunications] between the drivers, both of them, team direction and the team, we just need to ramp up our game.
“In these situations where it’s about crossing the line in tough conditions, we just got to have some precision. And very quickly you can look very good, very intelligent and very bad.
“It’s not the driver we should be focused on but ourselves. We had the time to give both of them a proper launch. Lewis was on provisional pole on the lap before and then ended up P7. All of us together, that shouldn’t be happening.
“It’s really a constant development and learning process, and I think with the badness that happened today, I’m sure what we discussed afterwards, we’ve made a step in correcting that.
“We’ve tripped up a few times and just need to up our game.”
These types of errors are not usually common within the German team. However, Toto Wolff seems to be willing to tackle it.
