After a devastating start to the 2023 Formula 1 season, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton only finishing fifth and his teammate George Russell finishing in seventh at the Bahrain Grand Prix, the chances for the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 team to win the championship this year have already been minimised.
Mercedes went, after the 2021 season, from hero to zero. This is due current and past issues that have developed since the start of the 2022 season, which was the first season in seven years, in which Mercedes could not win the Drivers’ Championship. It is now questionable what the future holds for Mercedes and if they can bounce back, especially with the constant pressure of maintaining peak performance in an incredibly competitive elite sport.
Mercedes, with star driver Lewis Hamilton, have been the best team for nearly a decade, winning the Constructors’ Championship eight times in a row from 2014–2021 and the Drivers’ Championship seven times in a row. Six of these titles went to Lewis Hamilton, and one to his former teammate, German racing driver Nico Rosberg.
Due to the newly introduced turbo-hybrid engine back in 2014, Mercedes was not just the fastest car on track but also the most reliable one. Paddy Lowe, who was a leading engineer for Mercedes in the 2014 season, described, in an interview with Formula 1 which is available on their official website, the change in regulations as “the greatest change in regulations in Formula One history” with “the headline [being] efficiency”. Looking at the seven seasons after the change of regulations, it was not surprising that Mercedes favoured these changes, as they were the team that have coped brilliantly under the new conditions.
After years of dominance, the 2021 season changed quite a bit regarding Mercedes’ confidence, as Red Bull seemed to have a competitive car alongside upcoming star Max Verstappen. With one of the most exciting seasons ever in Formula 1 history and drivers Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen going into the last race of the season on the same number of points, there was a possible change in dominance. In a race with questionable decisions by the FIA, the highest authority in world motorsport, such as only letting the cars in between Hamilton and Verstappen unlap themselves behind a safety car instead of all lapped cars, Max Verstappen managed to win his first ever world championship – leaving the Mercedes team baffled.
The first issues with their 2022 car became visible at the start of the season, with new design regulations that were radically different to what they were before. During the pre-season testing, all cars had changed look wise, but Mercedes’ car looked more different, due to their new concept, the ‘zero-sidepod’. Mercedes once again was seen as a threat to other teams, for example HAAS F1 Team principal Guenther Steiner saw the strengths in an interview with Auto Motor and Sport: “This exact concept was our first design. We had it in the wind tunnel last July, and we already noticed there that it gives advantages in slow corners.”
Instead of dominating, Mercedes was struggling under the new regulations. The main issue was the ‘porpoising’, the bouncing of the car on track, because it did not just slow the car down but also put the drivers at risk for injuries and losing control of the car. German journalist Tom Kollmar believed that: “(Mercedes) main issue is: They do not understand their own car. I would describe their situation as very critical.” Lewis Hamilton suffered from back pain throughout the whole season. In many races, such as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, he complained to the team that his back was “killing”. In an interview with BBC Sport, he said: “I’m worried every time I get back in the car. I just don’t want to have that bouncing again.” Team boss Toto Wolff was worried about the situation as well and believed that it was not a muscular issue anymore and that “it goes properly deep into the spine”, as he said in an interview with Sky Sports back in 2022.
Although Mercedes managed to minimise the porpoising later in the season, there were more issues, such as the lack of speed, especially on the straight. Compared to the Red Bull and Ferrari that fought for wins in the first half of the season, Mercedes were significantly slower and therefore failed their mission to “put a target on everyone’s back” as Wolff stated in the Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive’. After years of dominance, the pressure of getting back on top in an elite sport like Formula 1 is extremely high. Mercedes have not been used to that amount of pressure for the past decade, which most definitely had a great impact on their lack of confidence and failure to react positively in the following season. Whereas Mercedes have not been pleased with how the past two seasons have turned out, the ups and downs and the enormous pressure to constantly perform at a high level is what makes Formula 1 so appealing to its spectators.
Mercedes did manage to improve their speed in the second half of the season and managed to outperform Ferrari, who started to struggle. Throughout the season, Mercedes had one race win, with Russell winning in Brazil, which gave the team and fans hope for the 2023 season, but nonetheless, the form of the 2022 season is not the performance level Mercedes wants to be on in the following seasons.
The hopes to bounce back in the 2023 season after an impressive car launch, got smashed before the first race even started. On the third day of pre-season testing, the drivers were struggling for balance, and Russell had to stop the session because of a hydraulic issue, questioning the reliability of the car.
The disappointment continued in the first race of the season, as the cars finished P5 and P7 which is far from being enough to win the championship. In an interview with Sky Sports after the race, Wolff said that it was “one of the worst days in racing” and that Mercedes was “lacking pace front, right, and centre”.
Hamilton complained about the issues but claimed no one listened to him. In an interview with the ‘F1: Chequered Flag’ podcast, he mentioned, “Last year, there were things that I told them. I said the issues that are with the car. I’ve driven so many cars in my life, so I know what a car needs. I know what a car doesn’t need.” In the podcast, he also said that he wants the team to own up and say, “We didn’t listen to you. It’s not where it needs to be, and we’ve got to work”.
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin did suggest changes after Hamilton’s complaint. On the team’s social media accounts, he said: “Given the gap to the front, of course we are going to look at bigger departures and more radical changes”, which leaves hope for the future. Kollmar said: “The changes Shovlin suggested need to happen as soon as possible, otherwise Mercedes will suffer under the pressure more than ever.”
Mercedes has two talented drivers and an amazing team standing behind them. They can be a championship-winning team but currently they are missing a competitive car. It will be interesting to see how Mercedes is going to cope with the pressure in the near future and whether they can improve before it is too late.
1250 words
