Mercedes sees light at end of tunnel: 'With both cars in top six'
F1 News
- GPblog.com
For Mercedes, the 2022 season is going differently than expected. After becoming world champion among the constructors for the eighth time in 2021, they have fallen behind Red Bull Racing and Ferrari this season. In particular, the car's rebound problems have caused many difficulties in the opening stages of this season. Yet there is light at the end of the tunnel.
At least it seems that way after Miami, as Mika Hakkinen also notes. In his column at Unibet the former world champion explains that Mercedes can be reasonably proud of its weekend in the Florida city. Through upgrades they managed to largely solve the porpoising effect and with that they also gained back some speed.
Weekend made up for on Sunday
"They looked really quick on Friday, but as the track conditions evolved into Saturday their speed fell away." Hakkinen is referring to qualifying, where George Russell already crashed out in Q2 in 12th place. Lewis Hamilton did a little better, but also didn't get beyond sixth place.
In the race things went a lot better, Hakkinen also sees. "George did a very good job to look after his tyres and run long in the race, holding out for a safety car period, and that worked really well for him." In Hamilton's case, the strategy actually worked against him, as the safety car came onto the track just at the wrong time. Still, Mercedes should look at the positives according to Hakkinen. "The team should really be quite satisfied to have both cars in the top six in spite of their problems."