When Max Verstappen’s RB20 suffered a failure early within the Australian Grand Prix, it opened the door for one in all Pink Bull’s rivals to safe an amazing end result. When the checkered flag flew it was Ferrari who had taken benefit, because the Scuderia notched a one-two end with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc up entrance.
In the meantime Mercedes was nonetheless standing within the doorway.
A bruising and irritating week got here to a bitter finish for the Silver Arrows, with Lewis Hamilton struggling a failure of his personal within the early levels that noticed the seven-time champion retire earlier than 20 laps had been accomplished. Teammate George Russell remained within the combat and was difficult Fernando Alonso for P6 within the closing levels, however a transfer by the Aston Martin driver at tough Flip 6 stage Russell in some soiled air. The Mercedes driver then skidded into the gravel earlier than discovering his W15 flipped onto its aspect.
The crash knocked Russell out of the factors, and whereas Alonso was later penalized for his “erratic” driving by the stewards it was of little solace to Mercedes. Because the grid departs Melbourne the Silver Arrows discover themselves sitting fourth within the Constructors’ Championship, 29 factors behind third-place McLaren, 67 factors behind second-place Ferrari, and 71 factors behind Pink Bull.
And with a big quantity of injury to restore — and solutions to seek out — earlier than the Japanese Grand Prix.
“That was a really disappointing finish to a troublesome weekend, with a big quantity of accident injury to treatment forward of Japan in two weeks’ time,” mentioned Andrew Shovlin, the staff’s Trackside Engineering Director, in Mercedes’ post-race report.
Hamilton, who appeared pissed off all week with the W15, remained optimistic that the staff might flip their fortunes round. Nevertheless, the previous champion cautioned that outcomes is probably not speedy.
“We will even enhance the automobile because the season goes on. We’ve got achieved so in earlier years, and I’m assured we are going to achieve this once more. It’s robust that we’re not as aggressive as we wish for the time being, however we are going to maintain working laborious. I’m centered on doing that with the staff,” mentioned Hamilton. “Within the brief time period, I anticipate we are going to nonetheless discover it troublesome to problem additional up however we are going to see what we will do within the medium time period.”
Russell famous that his end was maybe according to the tempo the staff confirmed all week in Melbourne.
“It was a disappointing finish to a troublesome race. Our tempo wasn’t the place we needed it to be. We confirmed spells of fine lap instances however in the end we’ve received work to do to catch these forward,” mentioned Russell. “We shall be centered on how we will make enhancements forward of Japan in two weeks’ time.”
Group Principal Toto Wolff, who expressed some frustrations of his personal forward of qualifying, echoed the optimism from Hamilton. “No person feels optimistic about the place we discover ourselves proper now, however we’re centered on turning this round,” outlined Wolff. “It’s robust to take however we are going to stay calm and composed. We’ve got seen others who’ve proven that once you get it proper, issues can flip round shortly. That’s what we’re aiming to do.”
Nonetheless, Sunday’s points-less end was a bitter tablet for the staff to swallow. And the easy fact? Mercedes was on the again foot all week lengthy, and that would proceed till they discover solutions with the W15.
“It has been a bruising weekend for us, throughout which we had been unable to compete on a single lap or the lengthy runs, and we shall be persevering with to trawl by the information within the coming days, to see what isn’t working and why we’re solely at present capable of ship flashes of efficiency from the automobile,” added Shovlin. “It’s clear that we’ve a lot to work on, to present each drivers a greater device to work with on the race weekends. We now must get our heads down, work by the challenges one after the other, and goal to ship a stronger exhibiting subsequent time in Suzuka.”
They’ve two weeks to seek out these solutions.
