Photo by Michael Potts/BSR Agency/Getty Images
A punishing weekend for the Silver Arrows sees them leave Melbourne out of the points, and tumbling in the standings
When Max Verstappen’s RB20 suffered a failure early in the Australian Grand Prix, it opened the door for one of Red Bull’s rivals to secure a tremendous result. When the checkered flag flew it was Ferrari who had taken advantage, as the Scuderia notched a one-two finish with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Charles Leclerc up front.
Meanwhile Mercedes was still standing in the doorway.
A bruising and frustrating week came to a bitter end for the Silver Arrows, with Lewis Hamilton suffering a failure of his own in the early stages that saw the seven-time champion retire before 20 laps had been completed. Teammate George Russell remained in the fight and was challenging Fernando Alonso for P6 in the closing stages, but a move by the Aston Martin driver at tricky Turn 6 level Russell in some dirty air. The Mercedes driver then skidded into the gravel before finding his W15 flipped onto its side.
The crash knocked Russell out of the points, and while Alonso was later penalized for his “erratic” driving by the stewards it was of little solace to Mercedes. As the grid departs Melbourne the Silver Arrows find themselves sitting fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, 29 points behind third-place McLaren, 67 points behind second-place Ferrari, and 71 points behind Red Bull.
And with a significant amount of damage to repair — and answers to find — before the Japanese Grand Prix.
“That was a very disappointing end to a tough weekend, with a significant amount of accident damage to remedy ahead of Japan in two weeks’ time,” said Andrew Shovlin, the team’s Trackside Engineering Director, in Mercedes’ post-race report.
Hamilton, who seemed frustrated all week with the W15, remained positive that the team could turn their fortunes around. However, the former champion cautioned that results may not be immediate.
“We will also improve the car as the season goes on. We have done so in previous years, and I am confident we will do so again. It is tough that we are not as competitive as we would like at the moment, but we will keep working hard. I am focused on doing that with the team,” said Hamilton. “In the short term, I expect we will still find it difficult to challenge further up but we will see what we can do in the medium term.”
Russell noted that his finish was perhaps in line with the pace the team showed all week in Melbourne.
“It was a disappointing end to a difficult race. Our pace wasn’t where we wanted it to be. We showed spells of good lap times but ultimately we’ve got work to do to catch those ahead,” said Russell. “We will be focused on how we can make improvements ahead of Japan in two weeks’ time.”
Team Principal Toto Wolff, who expressed some frustrations of his own ahead of qualifying, echoed the optimism from Hamilton. “Nobody feels positive about where we find ourselves right now, but we are focused on turning this around,” outlined Wolff. “It is tough to take but we will remain calm and composed. We have seen others who have shown that when you get it right, things can turn around quickly. That is what we are aiming to do.”
Still, Sunday’s points-less finish was a bitter pill for the team to swallow. And the simple truth? Mercedes was on the back foot all week long, and that could continue until they find answers with the W15.
“It has been a bruising weekend for us, during which we were unable to compete on a single lap or the long runs, and we will be continuing to trawl through the data in the coming days, to see what isn’t working and why we are only currently able to deliver flashes of performance from the car,” added Shovlin. “It’s clear that we have much to work on, to give both drivers a better tool to work with at the race weekends. We now need to get our heads down, work through the challenges one by one, and aim to deliver a stronger showing next time in Suzuka.”
They have two weeks to find those answers.
