Mercedes doesn’t understand its excellent late-season form
The Brazilian Grand Prix was dominated by Mercedes. George Russell won his first Grand Prix and Mercedes took their first win of the season. The German team has been on a clear upward trend since the second half of the season, but has yet to determine what enabled them to create such a gap with the competition over the last race weekend.
Mercedes had to wait 21 races to secure a victory in 2022. A real eternity when we remember that one year prior, Lewis Hamilton was battling Max Verstappen for victory every weekend. The German team had to contend with a car that suffered from numerous problems related to its design. But thanks to intense development in the latter part of the season, Mercedes closed the gap and is now fighting at the forefront with Red Bull.
The German team came close to victory during the United States Grand Prix and also during the one held in Mexico. While the Mercedes mainly suffered from excessive aerodynamic load, which was significantly improved in Mexico thanks to the altitude, the team’s good performances are surprising on other tracks. The Brazilian weekend demonstrated the progress made by the team, as the silver arrows set a relentless race pace during both the sprint race and the Grand Prix, optimizing the tire strategy. Toto Wolff knew that Mercedes had the best package for this race weekend but did not expect such a significant gap with the other top teams.
“I think performance is only the sum of the parts of the development that have been brought to the car, the good work that has been done during the season on the power unit side, and all of us together,” he declared.
The first part of the season was difficult for the German team, but it allowed them to gather a lot of data. The second part of the season was therefore dedicated to the development and improvement of the W13 with the arrival of many upgrades. Toto Wolff is delighted with this victory, which rewards the team’s hard work throughout the year. The team never stopped believing that we were on the right track while acknowledging that we didn’t always understand everything.
This shows the mindset and values of the team, and I am very proud of what we have achieved.
Despite this victory, Toto Wolff does not think that the silver arrows will be as efficient in Abu Dhabi. The German car has dominated the field on a type of track that suits it particularly well since the beginning of the year.
(I) I think that Abu Dhabi on paper is much more difficult for us, also because we are still penalized by the drag, and we know why. We know why we are better.
With Ferrari having stopped its development, it is also likely that if Mercedes has not made much progress, it is the decrease in performance of other teams that allows Mercedes to come back to victory.
