CAN MERC BOUNCE BACK?

The team that once utterly dominated Formula 1 has had a torrid two years. Now, finally, it appears to have refound its mojo. But why has it taken so long? Andrew Benson investigates what went wrong

- Andrew Benson

After two painful years, a lot of soul-searching and a fair few blind alleys, Mercedes has finally seen the light at the end of the tunnel in Formula 1. In the end it has all happened quickly. After the Miami Grand Prix, George Russell made a remark that really brought home how far Mercedes had fallen since becoming the most successful team in F1 history and winning eight consecutive constructors’ titles from 2014 to 2021. Russell had finished eighth, two places behind teammate Lewis Hamilton. At the front of the field, 35sec ahead of Russell and 17sec in front of Hamilton, Lando Norris had just won the race in a McLaren powered by a Mercedes engine.

“It shows what’s possible when you get things right,” Russell said, “but for now we don’t have things right, and we need to make changes quickly. We have to accept that we are the fourth-fastest team at the moment.”

And yet by mid-June, after a series of upgrades to the car over successive races, Russell was on pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix. And while he finished third in the race, both winner Max Verstappen and Norris, who joined him on the podium, felt the Mercedes had been the fastest car.

Two weeks later, Hamilton took third place, again behind Verstappen and Norris, at Spain’s Catalunya track. And Russell – who had briefly led the race after a lightning start from fourth, where he eventually finished – said: “We really feel we are getting a bit of momentum. It’s shifting and it’s with us, and we know what we need to do to make the next big leap with our updates.

“I’m confident we can win races this year now. We have led two races in two weekends after the upgrades. We wouldn’t have expected that at the beginning of the season.” Then came his fortuitous, but significant, victory in Austria. Mercedes’ first win in 33 races.