Mercedes is back in business. Despite George Russell’s disqualification at the Belgian Grand Prix for a car 1.5 kg below the minimum weight imposed by the FIA, excluding fuel, due to excessive tire wear, the team still clinched another victory. This is the third win in the last four races and the second for Lewis Hamilton, following his success at home during the Silverstone Grand Prix. These results boost morale for a team that has been struggling since the new regulations of 2022 and was facing another complicated start to the season.
Indeed, it took until the ninth round of the championship, at the Gilles-Villeneuve circuit, to see a Mercedes on the podium. Since that race, the German manufacturer has not left the top three positions, even securing three victories. This new dynamic is made possible by developments that have worked perfectly, notably the new package introduced at the Imola round, which gave the car better stability. As a result, ambitions seem to have been regained on the German side, if we are to believe Lewis Hamilton’s statements.
The seven-time world champion declared to still have hope of returning to the fight for the driver’s championship and believes that Mercedes’ new momentum in recent weeks could allow the team to compete for the constructor’s title at the end of the season, if it continues to produce this kind of performance.
« No. Those would be big hopes. But if we can keep up this kind of performance as we have done in the last few races, which has been fantastic, I think that if we can start our weekends better, we can continue.
After his victory at Spa, the Briton took the opportunity to salute the work of his team, which was able to rally despite difficult times and now produces a car capable of winning races.
Translate: « We are back in the fight for victory after a few races. We did not expect to be competing with McLaren or Red Bull at this stage of the season, given how we had started the championship. It goes to show that you should never give up. » Indeed, Mercedes had a mixed start to the season with only 34 points scored in the first four weekends of the season, culminating in a double retirement in Melbourne.
On the contrary, in the last three races, Hamilton has scored 65 points, the highest number of all drivers during this period, well ahead of the 40 points collected by championship leader Max Verstappen. During the same period, Mercedes is the second most in-form team behind McLaren and is getting closer to Ferrari for the third place.
A path that still remains long
Currently 127 points behind Max Verstappen and with a 142-point gap to Red Bull, the road is still long to hope to win a title this year. However, if Pérez, who has been rehired by Red Bull for the rest of the season, continues to string together poor performances and McLaren does not optimize its results enough, the Brackley team could turn the tables and offer us an intense battle until the end of the season.