Former F1 driver Timo Glock doesn’t see Mercedes returning to the top of F1

Since November 13, 2022, Mercedes has not won a race in F1, including both the Sprint and main race. Before this last double victory by the German team, led by George Russell, we have to go back to December 5, 2021, to see Lewis Hamilton win the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, his 103rd and most recent victory to date.

Since the introduction of the new FIA regulations in 2022, Mercedes has lost its title as the dominant team in F1. The 2022 W13 suffered from porpoising (bouncing) and the team had not opted for the same sidepods as all the other teams. Despite scoring 515 points and 17 podium finishes, the team finished third in the constructors’ championship, whereas the star brand had won this title for eight consecutive years between 2014 and 2021.

This season, the W14, without paint, all black carbon in order to save weight, is not better than the previous season’s car. The team only achieved seven podium finishes, six for Hamilton, and only one for Russell, earning a total of 382 points, with two races left in the championship. After the Brazilian Grand Prix, Toto Wolff described the race as inexcusable and stated that the W14 did not deserve a victory after a season of below-average performance.

(h2) Sometimes you are fast and sometimes slow »

Timo Glock, former German F1 driver between 2008 and 2012, believes that Mercedes will struggle to fight for the championship again. This is the worst-case scenario for the team, “that you don’t understand why you are sometimes fast and why you are sometimes slow,” declared the former Toyota driver in an interview for RacingNews365.

They need to find the direction and the reason why things seem good in the simulation and wind tunnel, but not on the track. If you look at the past, old cars (under the old regulations), that was Mercedes’ strength. They just put new parts on the car and it worked. With the new concept of the car in recent years, I think it’s quite obvious to say that there is a problem in terms of correlation between simulation, wind tunnel and reality. This could be part of the problem. The hardest thing for a team is to make a whole group of modifications work together and now they have a lot of changes, it impacts the team and their performance, Timo Glock continued.

Toto Wolff furious about his team’s poor result

Toto Wolff, the executive director of Mercedes, also does not understand the reasons for the poor performance. In the last two races, you finish second and a week later, you don’t achieve anything. It’s completely baffling. At the same time, it’s unacceptable for all of us. We are a strong organization, a strong team, and it didn’t look like a strong team, stated Toto Wolff after the race.

« It’s unsettling. You go from a very fast, well-balanced car with happy drivers, to a nightmare. How is this possible? What is happening? What is wrong? I wouldn’t be surprised if we look at the cars in the next few days and discover there was a mechanical issue with how we set them up or something like that. But I don’t know what it will be, continued Wolff.