Mercedes have made some giant leaps in recent times after struggling with porpoising early in the season. The violent bouncing hindered the Silver Arrows’ progress, allowing Red Bull and Ferrari to build a comfortable lead in both championships. However, the German team has seen some great progress in the last five progress, with Lewis Hamilton securing a podium in each one of them.
They have also secured double podiums in France and Italy as a result of Hamilton and George Russell’s team efforts. Russell also clinched the team’s first pole position this season. However, the Briton could not convert it into a victory due to the lack of pace during the final stint. Mercedes’ recent developments have suggested that they are headed strongly towards their first victory of the season. It was the first time since 2012 that the Silver Arrows entered the summer break without a single win under their name. Thus, the Brackley-based outfit’s prime objective would be to secure their first win during the second half of the season.
Mercedes Still Quite Far From A Race Win
However, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has warned his drivers not to be too excited about their performance during the Hungarian GP. Wolff suggested that his team needed to be careful. He felt that the positive double podium in Budapest was a result of the car landing in the perfect window. The Mercedes boss pointed out that Ferrari complained about the tyres not being in the right window. So, in Toto’s personal opinion, Mercedes are still lacking the pace to compete with the frontrunners, Red Bull and Ferrari, for a race win. However, Wolff was happy that Mercedes finally found themselves in the same race.
The former Austrian driver did not think that his team was back in the hunt yet and could win races. He believed that things landed well for Mercedes on Saturday in Budapest, and they reaped the results during the race. The 50-year-old added, “But I don’t think we are close enough to Ferrari and Red Bull to really fight them as yet.” Toto felt that his team still needed to learn more, and getting things wrong was important too. Wolff also discussed the porpoising issue and how the bouncing has affected Mercedes’ campaign so far.
Wolff Reveals How Badly Porpoising Affected The Team
Wolff further explained that all of the Mercedes upgrades were overshadowed by porpoising, putting the team a few months behind in the W13’s development. The Mercedes team principal believed that all their developments were overshadowed by the infamous porpoising issue. The bouncing has been the team’s biggest weakness from the get-go. The Silver Arrows could not develop the car aerodynamically or put better upgrades because the increase in downforce made the bouncing worse. However, Toto Wolff insisted that Barcelona helped his team understand the problem better, and they finally managed to get over porpoising. Thus, Mercedes have been left to play the catch-up game to the frontrunner after falling months behind in their development.
Meanwhile, the new technical regulations would come into effect during the Belgian GP. The regulation change is expected to affect the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari. Toto Wolff claimed that it would be quite interesting to see how things turn out in Spa and if the change in the ride height would make a difference for some teams. Toto said he no longer believes in the silver bullet. There have been speculations that Mercedes would be three-tenths faster than everyone else. Wolff concluded, “But in any case, it will be interesting.”