The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team once again had to settle for being the third fastest team, after failing to come close to the top-two steps of the podium at the Italian Grand Prix.
George Russell had a quiet race, after sitting in second-place in the races opening laps before being easily overtaken by race winner Max Verstappen. Lewis Hamilton had a much more eventful Grand Prix, having started from nineteenth place. The seven-time World Champion managed to work his way up to an impressive fifth-place, ahead of Oracle Red Bull Racing‘s Sergio Pérez.
Hamilton pulled off some great moves along the way, especially in a car that struggles with top speed. After the triple-header Mercedes find themselves thirty-five points behind Scuderia Ferrari, with six races remaining.
Team Principal Toto Wolff discussed his team’s performance, as well as the performance of Mercedes Reserve driver Nyck de Vries, who stepped in for Alex Albon on Saturday morning and managed to score points on his Formula 1 debut sensationally.
“We were clearly the third fastest team today, so third and fifth positions was probably the maximum we could expect. Although the gaps were not as big as in Spa, this was clearly a track that didn’t suit us, so it was a question of maximising our result and doing damage limitation with Lewis. It was enjoyable to watch him fight through the pack – he looked a little bit stuck at the beginning, then once the tyres came together, he was very quick. As for George, he did everything we asked of him, and it was another faultless drive.
“Looking at the championship, we are 35 points behind with six races to go and we just need to do our best every single week and see where we land after Abu Dhabi. But we also know that our ultimate target was 30 seconds up the road today, and that is the real gap we need to catch up. Finally, a word for Nyck: he did the absolute maximum today, jumping into a car he had barely driven in FP3, then scoring two points. It showed exactly what he is capable of.”
“It’s going to be a tough finish” – Andrew Shovlin
It’s been a challenging triple-header for the Silver Arrows, with two out of three of the races having been at low-downforce circuits. This has been the German’s weakness this season, something which has been proven especially in Qualifying.
This weekend the team were 1.4 seconds behind the pole time, and at the Belgian Grand Prix they were virtually two seconds behind. There remains a lot of work to be done by the team, but nevertheless they continue to rack up their podium finishes.
Mercedes’ Head of Trackside Engineering, Andrew Shovlin, labelled the weekend as “tough”, but is hopeful the team can beat Ferrari to second in the Constructors’.
“Looking at Spa and Monza, the car clearly struggles at the lower downforce levels so to come away with and podium for George and fifth for Lewis having started on the back row is a solid result. The weekend has been tough, we’ve lacked corner entry stability at the rear end which had meant the car was a bit of a handful on the single lap.
“The gaps in the race were a bit better but it was still impossible to do anything on strategy that would have put George better than third. With hindsight fitting the hard on his car at the first stop was a mistake but he did a good job with it and would have kept Carlos at arm’s length had the race finished without the safety car. Lewis had a tough start to the race getting bogged down in a train of midfield cars but kept attacking and once he got into clear air, was able to put in some good laps and clear the lot.
“Towards the end of the race, we weren’t pulling in Sergio fast enough to catch but once they stopped it gave us a bonus position and it looked like we’d hold onto it but once the safety car came out that was guaranteed. Triple headers are never easy for the team and this one has been particularly tough, but we hope to perform better in the closing races. The battle with Ferrari for second place gives us a good goal to work towards in the final part of the season, so we’ll be using the next two weeks to prepare as it’s going to be a tough finish with six races in eight weeks.”
Credit: Jiri Krenek