How things change in a few months. Mercedes finished 2021 as Formula 1 Constructors World Champion for the eighth time in a row and also came close to the eighth Drivers’ title in a row, lost to Lewis Hamilton at the very last lap of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Today, however, it is in a condition it hasn’t been in since 2013.
It seems like a geological era has passed, and considering how much motorsport evolves and changes, it is. Since the introduction of the new technical regulation, the Brackley team has slipped from first to third place in the Constructors, engulfed by numerous problems deriving from an ambitious but complex project like the one that gave life to the W13.
Porpoising, but also a base car that is too rigid that during the first 11 races forced the engineers to review several things, including not only the bottom several times, but even the entire rear suspension first and then the front.
All this has led to an improvement from a chronometric point of view, but Red Bull and Ferrari continue to have a separate championship, dedicated and exclusive to them, in which no one has yet managed to fit in and put pressure on them for an entire weekend.
“If you look at the result, and motorsport is driven by results, third and fourth place are good, they are good results. I am quite satisfied,” said Toto Wolff at the end of the Austrian Grand Prix, where Lewis Hamilton has took the podium – third place – and George Russell fourth.
According to the Austrian manager, the improvements made by the W13s over the last few weeks have brought the Silver Arrows closer to the RB18s and F1-75s. Even this gap of “pure performance” would have dropped to just 2, maybe 3 tenths.
“But we still need 2 or 3 tenths of a second in terms of performance. Overall, the W13s were much faster over the weekend at the Red Bull Ring. The team, however, is still not fast enough to compete for the top spots.”
“They are 2-3 tenths of pure performance. I think they are pure performance. I think porpoising has been resolved. I think that if we were to return to Monaco and Baku (tracks on which Mercedes struggled a lot, ed), we would not be exceptional, but certainly we wouldn’t have the problems we encountered a few weeks ago. “
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari F1-75, Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75, George Russell, Mercedes W13
Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
In reality, looking at the gap taken by Lewis Hamilton towards the winner of the grand prix, Charles Leclerc, we can see how the 7-time world champion has reached 39 “685 from the Ferrari driver. All this gap has been accumulated over the course The calculation is quite simple to do and shows how the W13s are actually still quite detached from the leading cars.
In fact, it should be considered that Charles Leclerc had to drive his F1-75 very carefully in the last 13 laps due to a problem with the accelerator, which remained partially open in some corners. This is why Hamilton’s detachment from the Monegasque is not entirely truthful and, therefore, potentially even wider.
Wolff, however, is happy with the pace Lewis and Russell had. It is difficult, however, to be satisfied with a podium that arrived only thanks to the retirement of Sergio Perez and that of Carlos Sainz Jr.
“The Red Bull Ring has never been an easy track for us. In the last 8 years, although we have had several successes in the World Championships, this has been the only circuit where we have struggled.”
“From this point of view I am satisfied with how it went. In a certain sense, during the Sprint Race on Saturday, we seemed stuck in no man’s land”.
“On Sunday, on the other hand, perhaps we remained in no man’s land only from the point of view of track positioning, but the lap times were competitive. On Saturday we lost half a second on each lap”, concluded Wolff.
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