ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - DECEMBER 12: Second placed and championship runner up Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP looks dejected in parc ferme during the F1 Grand Prix of Abu Dhabi at Yas Marina Circuit on December 12, 2021 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Mercedes’ trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin believes that the team will come back strong in the upcoming races
Mercedes have had a very disappointing start to the season. Things didn’t quite go to plan for the F1 team in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Mercedes find themselves in second place in the Constructors’ standings with 38 points, way behind Ferrari who are on 78 points.
Andrew Shovlin admitted that the team has a lot of work to do but is confident that they will bounce back. Speaking in a race de-brief video, Shovlin said, “We’re under no illusions what performance gap is and in Jeddah it was ultimately a bit bigger than in Bahrain. We’ve got quite a lot to find both in qualifying and in the long run if we want to challenge the Ferrari and Red Bull cars. However, behind us, it looks like we have a bit of margin to that midfield.”
He further added, “We need to do a good job to be ahead of them but we have a bit of margin and that buys us a bit of breathing space to allow us to experiment on the weekends, to try and bring solutions to lift the level of performance of the car.”
Mercedes have had a really tough start as a team. They have won the last eight constructors’ championships in Formula 1. The indifferent start to the 2022 season definitely comes as a shock and surprise to the team and the F1 community in general.
Lewis Hamilton had a horrible start to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jeddah. He was knocked out in the very first round of qualifying – the first time since 2017. Hamilton started the race in his P15 grid slot but could only manage a 10th placed finish earning one point. This is definitely not the start that the 7-time world champion was expecting ahead of the 2022 F1 season.
Speaking on the rough start to the season, Hamilton said, “The learnings are there that we are quite a bit off pace-wise and have got a lot of work to do. You always want to take the positives from a difficult situation but we’re not here to settle for that. We can’t walk away being pleased with that.”
Can Mercedes turn things around in the Australian Grand Prix? We will have all the answers this weekend.
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