Suddenly, the Mercedes
‘But what year are we in?’ Is the question we are asking ourselves places a bit of all today in the first stint of the British Grand Prix when the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were visibly pulling away while Max Verstappen was struggling in third place until he even gave way to Lando Norris.
The rain gave wings to the McLarens, but at Mercedes they did not lose heart. While on the one hand a reliability problem forced George Russell to retire, on the other Lewis Hamilton hit the mark on the best possible stage, ending a fast that had lasted since Jeddah 2021 with a victory that is worth more than a season. The Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff to the microphones of Sky Sports he did not hide the fact that suddenly Mercedes from a ‘fourth-rate team’ as Cesare Fiorio had defined it a few months ago has returned to being the perfect machine (intended as a team, not just as a car) that dominated the turbo-hybrid era from 2014 to 2020.
“Five races ago we didn’t even get a podium, and today we won two races in a row, with the last one deserved, where we were the fastest in all conditions. – Wolff’s words – Today we had a race like three years ago, with two consecutive pit stops, stopping both drivers in the transition from slicks to intermediates, fast and without problems, a strategy that worked with a pit stop before Norris’s. The car is much faster and the team has come out of difficult moments and we were always convinced that we could win again. With Russell we had a cooling problem. We had hoped that he could hold for 10 laps, but that was not the case. It was a small detail. Chasing the World Championship? I am a man of probabilities, I have always been in the world of investments, but now I do not think we can think about the World Championship. In F1, however, it is possible that with two cars pushing, as happened today, it is possible that in the end we can beat probability and logic. Now Max sees that Mercedes is going, but I do not know what he thought. Today he saw it from behind, and maybe he thought about Mercedes for 20 laps. We are in a situation where we have Kimi waiting, yesterday he did an exceptional job, and it is fantastic to have more solutions than just one. This is a gift that we gave to Lewis and that Lewis gave to us. It is a beautiful story that ends in his last home GP with us at Silverstone. I do not think that his choice to go to Ferrari is sad, people make decisions, but we are always calm in the direction in which the team is going and in which the driver is taking. We are adults and we do everything to have a fast car for Lewis and George until the end of the season, but it is true that we are leaving a great driver at Ferrari. I am sure that for Ferrari a situation that they wanted will materialize”.
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