Photo: LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
The 2022 French Grand Prix was supposed to be Mercedes’ coming out party. Sure, the German outfit got both cars up on the podium (P2 and P3), but their real race pace was still far off that of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull.
According to team principal Toto Wolff, Mercedes still needs to find “a lot of lap time” before it can realistically challenge its main rivals for wins consistently.
When asked by Motorsport if he felt that his team was around 0.4 - 0.5 seconds behind Red Bull and Ferrari, Wolff stated the following: “I think he [Hamilton] was able to stabilize the gap at five or six seconds in the first stint, but you need to be honest and say when they were racing each other in the second stint, probably Max was just keeping it on the track.”
“So, in my half empty glass perspective, there is still a lot of lap time to catch up.”
Speaking of the glass being half empty, Mercedes now must figure out why they didn’t perform as expected in France, which means analyzing all the data and working out a new development strategy for the next few Grand Prix.
“I think with every lap, we collect more data and understand a little bit, so we’re putting the little pieces of the puzzle together,” added Wolff. “It’s a process that’s sometimes difficult.”
“It’s simply not one thing. We’re lacking performance on a single lap, and we are lacking performance at the initial stages of the stint. […] Second and third is a good result but we work tirelessly to win and there is still a gap.”
With this past weekend’s result in the books, Mercedes now has 270 points in the 2022 Constructor Standings, trailing second-place Ferrari by 44 points. It’s not an insurmountable difference, but it’s not like Ferrari won’t be scoring a heck of a lot more points to going forward.
When asked by Motorsport if he felt that his team was around 0.4 - 0.5 seconds behind Red Bull and Ferrari, Wolff stated the following: “I think he [Hamilton] was able to stabilize the gap at five or six seconds in the first stint, but you need to be honest and say when they were racing each other in the second stint, probably Max was just keeping it on the track.”
“So, in my half empty glass perspective, there is still a lot of lap time to catch up.”
Speaking of the glass being half empty, Mercedes now must figure out why they didn’t perform as expected in France, which means analyzing all the data and working out a new development strategy for the next few Grand Prix.
“I think with every lap, we collect more data and understand a little bit, so we’re putting the little pieces of the puzzle together,” added Wolff. “It’s a process that’s sometimes difficult.”
“It’s simply not one thing. We’re lacking performance on a single lap, and we are lacking performance at the initial stages of the stint. […] Second and third is a good result but we work tirelessly to win and there is still a gap.”
With this past weekend’s result in the books, Mercedes now has 270 points in the 2022 Constructor Standings, trailing second-place Ferrari by 44 points. It’s not an insurmountable difference, but it’s not like Ferrari won’t be scoring a heck of a lot more points to going forward.
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