Mercedes has found itself quite far in the 2022 championship battle due to the troubles of their newly designed car. The Silver Arrows have struggled to compete at the front in the new ground-effect cars, despite being the constructors’ champions for the past eight seasons. While all the teams struggled with porpoising, Mercedes were affected the most as they found themselves stuck in no man’s land ahead of the midfield and quite behind the frontrunners, Red Bull and Ferrari. However, the German team has shown some great reliability while other teams have faltered.
In 13 races this season, Mercedes have had 25 race finishes and had to retire once in Silverstone. George Russell was involved in the opening lap crash at the British Grand Prix, which ended his race. At the same time, Mercedes have not had any mechanical issues so far. But, they were forced to compromise with the much-needed performance in order to control the violent bouncing.
The Brackley-based outfit has come quite good in the last five races. Hamilton has secured a podium in all of them. Moreover, the team has secured a double podium with Lewis in P2 and Russell in P3 during the last two races. Mercedes are yet to win a race this year. Lewis Hamilton has suggested his engineers turn things around in terms of performance as the team cannot rely on their reliability forever to get them success for the rest of the season.
Hamilton Reckons Mercedes Needs More Power
Talking to ViaPlay, the Briton said it had been a challenging year similar to 2009. He had arrived at the McLaren factory to test a new car. Lewis Hamilton shared that the car looked good, but it was surprisingly not great to drive. Mercedes have gone through similar processes as a team by stripping away things, rebuilding, regrouping, and maneuvering the car in terms of improvement. The former F1 champion was happy with his team’s consistency in the last few races.
However, the 37-year-old pointed out that his team lacked performance which was a difficult thing to gain. Mercedes saw potential in their W13. But they had to depower the car to control the violent porpoising. Lewis concluded, “We can’t forever rely on reliability being the thing that keeps us on the podium. So, we really need performance.”
Mercedes are currently 85 points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ championship. Meanwhile, Hamilton is trailing Max Verstappen by 112 points. Thus, the Silver Arrows may not win the championship this year. But they still aim to win at least a single race by the end of the 2022 season.