their concept when designing the car
but were not ready to go back to the
drawing board. That has proved to be
the right decision and he even went
so far as to suggest the team could get
back in the hunt for the title.
“Can we fight for another world
championship? You bet we can,” Wolff
said. “We just need to have a car able
to finish first and second. We have
reasons to believe we can get there. If
you look at the odds, they are against
us, but we saw on Sunday that Ferrari
did not score a lot of points although
they should have, so we are absolutely
pushing flat out to bring us back into
the game.”
A championship this year for
Mercedes may be too far a push, with
Red Bull and Ferrari likely to be
fighting for the title, but it does
appear that the Silver Arrows have
pulled clear of the rest of the midfield
teams. If they can continue to develop
their car, a win or two this season is
not out of the question.L
ewis Hamilton’s fifth-place
finish at the Spanish Grand
Prix on Sunday was arguably
his best outing of the season.
Not his highest result —
he was on the podium after coming
third in the first race of the season in
Bahrain — but the most encouraging
performance in that it appeared
Mercedes had started to solve the
issues with their car and could be
back in the hunt for wins before the
year is out.
The Silver Arrows have been
plagued by “porpoising” — the high-
speed bouncing on the straights
created by aerodynamic
disruption — which greatly
affected their performance.
It was headache-inducing
to watch and cost the
team valuable time
against their rivals.
When Mercedes
arrived at that first race
in Bahrain in March, it
immediately became
clear that the team that
had won the past eight
constructors’ world titles were
going to struggle to make it nine.
They were at least a second off the
pace of Red Bull and Ferrari and
Hamilton’s third-place finish had
more to do with the misfortune of
those in front of him than his own
performance.
The seven-times world champion,
and his team-mate George Russell,
had struggled with the car since then
— until Spain that is, when Mercedes
introduced an upgrade that featured a
redesigned floor, and that seems to
have eliminated the porpoising.
Mercedes held a filming day —
each team is permitted two a season
— at the Circuit de Catalunya last
Wednesday, only days before theSport
Hamilton: We’ll be fighting for wins soon
No barren season yet
Lewis Hamilton has won at least one
grand prix every year he has been in
Formula One, but has not been on the
top step of the podium at any of the six
races this season2007
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20224 5 2 3 3 4 111
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0Mercedes seem to have
solved the issues with
their car and can look
ahead with optimism,
Rebecca Clancy writes
Mercedes have redesigned their car’s floor and that has eliminated the high-speed bouncing on the straightsSTEVE WOBSER/GETTY IMAGESSpanish Grand Prix,
when they tested the
new floor. Filming days
used to be traditionally
just that, but teams have
now started using them —
as is allowed in the
regulations — to test parts. The
result was immediate: the bouncing
on the straights had almost
completely gone and Mercedes had
not had to raise the ride height —
therefore slowing the car down — to
achieve that.
Teams try to keep the design of the
floor a closely guarded secret. The
only way for rivals to get a look at the
floor of another team’s car is in the
event of a crash when the vehicle is
lifted up to be towed away and a
photographer takes pictures.
There is irrefutable evidence,
though, that Mercedes’ new floor has
done the trick — Hamilton was
quickest of all through the speed trap
during qualifying in Spain.The one-second gap to Red Bull
and Ferrari is now down to about half
a second. The car has improved so
much that when Hamilton collided
with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen
on the first lap and dropped to 19th he
was able to claw his way through the
field, despite his early requests to
retire immediately after the contact.
Hamilton had to settle for fifth due
to a problem cooling the car in the
closing laps which denied him fourth
place but as he said: “The recovery
drive feels better than a win.” He now
believes he is definitely on course to
maintain his record of winning a race
in every season he has competed.
“We’ve made a lot of improvements
with the car,” Hamilton, 37, said. “The
race pace is much better and it is
much nicer to drive. This is a great
sign we’re going in the right direction.
Without hitting Magnussen, I would
have been fighting the Red Bulls. That
gives me great hope that at some
stage we’ll be fighting for wins.”Russell has outperformed
Hamilton, at least in the standings.
The 24-year-old, in his first season at
Mercedes, is fourth, 36 points behind
the championship leader Max
Verstappen, of Red Bull. Hamilton is
sixth and 64 points behind the
reigning world champion.
Russell is the only driver to have
finished in the top five in every race
this season and was on the podium
for the second time after his third
place in Barcelona. He was happy
with the car’s performance, though he
believes it will be three or four races
before Mercedes are fighting for wins.
“I think we’ve now got a baseline to
build upon,” Russell said. “We’ve
spent so long trying to find that, but
now we’ve found it. You know we’re
not there yet but we’re definitely in
the mix and can at least put up a fight
with the Red Bulls and Ferraris.”
Toto Wolff, the Mercedes team
principal, said a few weeks ago that
they may have made a mistake withMonaco
Grand Prix
Sunday, 2pm
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