Mercedes left Spain with a solid points haul for the team but ultimately didn’t have the ultimate pace to race with the top two finishers Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Team Principal Toto Wolff reflected on the race in his post-race press conference with written print media. He discussed the team’s strategy, how to balance inter-team rivalry and when his team will be challenging for race victories this season.
Mercedes’ performance at Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix was described by the team as a positive step forward on a circuit that would have challenged them significantly earlier in the season.
The Silver Arrows left Spain with 27 points and a back-to-back podium after Lewis Hamilton drove a classic Soft/Medium/Soft 2-stop to take P3.
Meanwhile, teammate George Russell, by stopping slightly earlier, took the Hard compound for his final stint. Russell managed the stint well and was able to hold off Charles Leclerc at the end who had run much longer.
During the race, a moment of note was when Verstappen overtook Russell. It was put to Wolff by journalists that it looked like a delta of 50kph during the pass. So, was it more than just DRS?
“Yes, that delta looked massive.” Wolff agreed. “I mean, the DRS, if you’re able to exit from the last corner and obviously the car they have. But it looked like there was a massive difference in straight line speed.”
Such a difference is one of the targets that Mercedes will be seeking to reduce in coming races. However, Sunday saw Mercedes driver Russell lead a race at some point for a second consecutive race weekend.
Even though this was for a shorter period in Spain than in Canada, Russell had told the media that if has given him the belief that the team can win races this year. On this point, the man steering the ship at Mercedes was asked if it is a little bit too early to say such comments but is he convinced that in the last half of the season victories will come to the team.
“When you look where we ended up, obviously George on the hard was the wrong strategy. Clearly goes on the team. And we had a slow stop, also with three seconds.
“But if you look at where Lewis was, 15 seconds behind the leaders, whilst taking the pace out at the end, so maybe call it 10 seconds. So that’s much closer.
“They weren’t holding back, Max and Norris. So yeah, it’s a reason to be carefully optimistic that we are much closer and will be able to fight,” claimed Wolff.
As much as Russell may be evoking a positive approach to the media, his team radio the previous day had indicated that Russell was angry with his teammate feeling that Hamilton’s track position and approach on a prep lap at the end of Q2 hindered him a bit. Therefore, how is the team going to manage such inter-team rivalry.
“There will always be a rivalry between two drivers, especially when the car then becomes capable to win,” stated Wolff . “And it’s normal. But the two are very respectful with each other. We are transparent in the team. That’s a lesson that I have learned, that we’re not holding back. We’re not letting anything grow in terms of animosity. And from that angle, I think that is business as usual.”
One can assume that this was in reference to the environment caused from the days of Nico Rosberg battling Lewis Hamilton for wins and championships.
Another thing Mercedes may have preferred to change is their choice of tyres as their rival Red Bull Racing clearly favoured the soft tyre. As such did Mercedes underestimate that tyre?
On this point, the Silver Arrows team principal accepted that his team were pretty convinced that the hard was the right thing to do. And obviously that was an approach to their disadvantage.
However, they did realise this during the race after Russell pitted and was an effective guinea pig for the team showing what would and wouldn’t work:
“George was basically the first one that we changed and then we realised that’s not going well. And then Lewis was able to extend this, the stint and then was the beneficiary of the hindsight.”
In a relatively short period of time since Mercedes have been adding upgrades on this car, which they now appear to have a handle on, they have secured two podiums back-to-back. Wolff was asked as to what’s coming on the car over the next Grand Prix. Also, because his team’s rate of development is so vast now, can fans expect a win anytime soon?
“I think what you’ve seen yesterday and also today that the gap is probably around three tenths to these two,” claimed Wolff in his comparison of his drivers against Verstappen and Norris. “That’s what’s missing. And if we’re able to bridge that, bearing in mind they also put upgrades on the car, I think, yeah, then we could be racing for a victory, but that’s not on the hands yet.
“Montreal, with the conditions, yeah, we could have won, but probably we surprised ourselves that we couldn’t. That’s why we dropped the ball there.”
Mercedes are learning lots of lessons and Spain capped another solid weekend for the team as they now look forward to the second race of the triple-header in Austria next week. The team can take a lot of positives away from race day having taken several steps forward in the previous few races.
Mercedes are on a positive development trajectory many would agree with Wolff as he stated “It feels good to be back in the game.”
