Column
How Mercedes' proactive change eases pressure on risk of losing Hamilton
The Mercedes technical staff reshuffle is a sign that the sleeping giant is awakening as proactive changes are actually taking place. The team have only won one Grand Prix since December 2021. Podiums have come, and the team finished third in the World Championship last season. But relatively speaking, that is an underperformance. Frustrating for Lewis Hamilton, even with his Mercedes loyalty.
Ever since Mercedes rolled out of the garage for pre-season testing when the 2021 rules and regulations arrived, it has been a game of catch-up. We’ve often heard from Lewis Hamilton and George Russell that factory engineers are working extremely hard to improve the situation. Now that hard work shouldn’t be doubted.
The people at the factory have been working flat out. The engineers in the paddock have been working flat out. The emotion is there. The passion is there. The hunger is there. And that is all brilliant to see. But those ingredients will only get you so far when you’re significantly behind Red Bull.
You can spend all of the hours available to you, analyse every single bit of data and make many set-up changes while still not making the necessary improvements. At the end of the day, Mercedes’ rivals and competitors are also doing that. Mercedes need to make a real step. You can only go so far to reach maximum potential. A fundamental change is required.
Smelling the coffee
The Mercedes concept on the current car has always been unique. However, as more and more teams converge towards the Red Bull method, the W14 is looking more and more solitary. Questions were thrown at all key Mercedes personnel in the second half of last season as to whether or not they would change their concept. Perhaps an embarrassing thought.
But then Mercedes’ biggest problem came. They won the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix. Not only did they win it, but they also secured a one-two finish. For understandable reasons, Max Verstappen wasn’t firing on all cylinders, but Russell and Hamilton looked relatively untouchable. It seems that victory placed some doubt inside the minds of Toto Wolff’s team. Could they get away with this concept without acknowledging and admitting others did it better?
Still, everyone half expected Mercedes to launch a different concept in February 2023. It looked different, and there were upgrades. Before a race had even started, Wolff counted the team out of the world championship. Qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix was seemingly the ‘smelling the coffee moment’.
Going back to the point above: You can spend all of the hours available to you, analyse every single bit of data and make many set-up changes while still not making the necessary improvements. At the end of the day, Mercedes’ rivals and competitors are also doing that. Mercedes need to make a real step. You can only go so far to reach maximum potential. A fundamental change is required.
This was understood after qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. An open letter to their fans followed. Proper fundamental change was always going to happen. Wolff even joked that a ‘Red Bull sticker’ would appear on the Mercedes side pods. Whatever they tried wasn’t working, so it was essential to go further up. And the first of those changes have now been made with a reshuffle in the technical department.
View this post on Instagram
So that’s it? Red Bull v Mercedes, here we go!
No. Mercedes still have a long way to go. Who knows what they have inside their wind tunnel, on the drawing board or in the production line. Who knows how long it will be before we see it. But, of course, the reshuffle will not mean Mercedes can throw in different ideas at the click of a finger. Even more so in a budget cap era.
The team have warned rivals of some upgrades. Next weekend’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix could be a venue, though it’s quite a unique circuit. With two race starts, the risk of a crash is slightly higher. So Imola seems like a more likely venue for upgrades. Usually, the Spanish Grand Prix is where we see most upgrades, which might still be the case. But it’s been pushed back to GP number eight. After that, Silverstone is only one month away. Will any of these upgrades sort it out? We have no idea, though it seems unlikely. The fruits from this technical reshuffle might not be ripe until 2024 at the earliest.
But despite that last sentence, a proactive response like this will only encourage Hamilton. Whether you believe he is the greatest of all time or not; whether you think he is past his peak with age or not; whether you believe Russell is better or not; there's no denying that Hamilton is still a fantastic driver. Red Bull aside, he walks into any of the other eight teams on the grid, no questions asked. Even with all of the loyalty, Hamilton wants an eighth World Championship. If he doesn't see signs of progression at Mercedes, he will be exploring his options. Maybe this change gives him the answers he needs to stay.