Ferrari and Vasseur confident for upcoming races
After a solid start to the season, Ferrari, which seemed to be the team most capable of competing with Red Bull for victories, has now slipped back in the hierarchy. However, the Italian team seems to be approaching the next Grand Prix with confidence, with circuits that should be more suited to its single-seaters.
The summer break did not benefit all teams. Mercedes, a team in good shape before the break with three wins in the last four races, arrived this weekend in the Netherlands filled with confidence, aware of having regained a performing car. However, the weekend did not really unfold as the team had hoped.
Disappointing qualifications
Hopes were high after good performances during the tests, with Norris claiming that Mercedes seemed a step ahead, and Russell leading in the second free practice session. However, during qualifying, the balance of the Mercedes was completely different, forcing Russell to use a new set of soft tires at the end of Q1 to avoid being eliminated. In Q2, this trend continued, with Hamilton unable to place his W15 in the top three of the session and finishing in twelfth position, before receiving a three-place penalty for impeding Sergio Perez.
In Q3, Russell could not do better than fourth place, behind the untouchable McLaren and Verstappen. Toto Wolff, the team’s boss, expressed his frustration after disappointing qualifications: “The car is on a knife edge. It’s really difficult to get it to work properly. When you have a moment of overheating in a turn, it doesn’t recover. I think that made things difficult for both drivers,” the Austrian said.
« You can say that crashing in Q2 is really not good, but also, P4 is a underperformance compared to what we were hoping for and what we saw during the previous sessions. » While he seemed in good shape this weekend, Russell had a very tough race, struggling to keep up with the drivers in front of him. The winner of the Austrian Grand Prix this year is surprised by his performance and that of the other teams, not understanding the difficulties encountered by Mercedes this weekend after six very solid races.
A lack of pace during the race
« We simply didn’t have any rhythm”, lamented the Briton. “I was dropping like a stone – I was particularly surprised compared to Ferrari. We expected to be comfortably ahead of them, but Charles [Leclerc] was faster, Carlos [Sainz] was catching up to me. Clearly, we made a mistake with the tires. »
« We qualified in fourth position and clearly, we didn’t do something right [during the race]. Honestly, right now, I’m still scratching my head. The conditions were very difficult, with the wind and the long turns. At the moment, I don’t have the answers. » The Mercedes driver was also surprised by the pace of the McLarens, with Norris finishing with over 20 seconds ahead of Verstappen. A performance that the British driver thought he would have this weekend.
« After the first few laps, I thought we were on track for a podium here. I knew overtaking would be tough. I was really shocked by the speed of McLaren. Lando [Norris] looked so comfortable out there, it was really impressive to see, but we had six very strong races and suddenly we finished almost a minute behind the winner, so you don’t lose all that performance overnight.
Despite finishing seventh and eighth in the race, Mercedes was surpassed by Ferrari in the battle for third place in the constructors’ championship. Wolff hopes that Zandvoort was just a misstep and that the team will find solutions as soon as Monza.
« I do not want to draw too hasty conclusions, because we will be looking into the matter in the coming days, and we hope to try to find clues in the data. I hope that we can resolve this before Monza and that we can be competitive again.
» The Italian Grand Prix this weekend will undoubtedly provide an answer and may perhaps determine Mercedes’ season’s end.
