It has been 9 years since Mercedes began a Method 1 season so badly.
For a lot of groups, 65 factors and two finishes on the rostrum from the primary three Grands Prix this yr would symbolize success. However that is Mercedes, a workforce that has gained a report eight consecutive constructors’ titles since 2014.
A resurgent Ferrari has dominated the early races, opening a 39-point lead over Mercedes after two wins and a second-place end for its driver Charles Leclerc. This isn’t what Mercedes is accustomed to.
“We’re on the again foot, nevertheless it’s nonetheless too early to put in writing off the championship,” Toto Wolff, the Mercedes workforce principal, mentioned.
This season, new aerodynamic laws have been launched, resulting in automobile designs geared toward making the sequence much more aggressive.
Mercedes’ automobile “got here with a radical idea,” Wolff mentioned, “that on paper had nice outcomes.” The automobile was a second off the tempo of Leclerc in qualifying on the final race in Australia.
“The truth is the physics and the theoretical physics don’t match up in the meanwhile,” he mentioned, nevertheless it’s physics not mystics.
“The one approach to sort out it’s with a plan and a scientific strategy. Now that’s not straightforward. There aren’t any low-hanging fruits.”
The redesign has produced automobiles that oscillate, or bounce, alongside a circuit, an impact often known as porpoising.
For Mercedes, porpoising is worse than most and is carried into corners the place the automobile loses most of its time. Ferrari’s automobile bounces, however not by means of the corners.
“I don’t perceive it, I don’t assume anybody does,” Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver, mentioned. “I want ours was the identical, nevertheless it’s not.
“When the automobile goes up and down, bouncing, and also you’re delivering at 200 miles per hour and the automobile is loading and unloading, you’ll be able to think about it’s fairly unstable. That’s what we’re confronted with.”
Forward of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton is 43 factors behind Leclerc.
Whether or not Hamilton can win a report eighth drivers’ title this season is determined by how shortly Mercedes can overcome the problems with its automobile.
“I favor to remain optimistic, and there are one other 20 races,” Hamilton mentioned. “Sure, the hole is fairly huge proper now, however there’s a lengthy approach to go.
“Realistically, by way of the best way the game goes by way of improvement, the highest groups usually develop at an identical tempo.
“Will that be the case with this new automobile? Who is aware of. I’m simply actually hopeful we are able to get within the struggle.”
His new teammate, George Russell, who scored his first spot on the rostrum for Mercedes with third in Australia, is the closest challenger to Leclerc, 34 factors again.
Russell mentioned Mercedes “can’t do something loopy” in attempting to win races once more.
“We all know we wish outcomes and we wish efficiency in the present day, however I feel if we do something too drastic, we’re going to go backward and never ahead,” he mentioned.
“We’ve obtained to belief our workforce, belief the method and simply acknowledge that it’s going to take time. However we all know there’s a lot potential within the automobile.”
Wolff mentioned the potential for the automobile “is to be racing on the entrance” as “that’s what the numbers say.”
“So long as we study, it’s vital to get the automobile again in a number one place and never racing in no man’s land,” he mentioned.
Hamilton is hoping to win one other title after lacking out beneath controversial circumstances within the closing race in Abu Dhabi final yr that allowed Max Verstappen of Pink Bull to develop into champion.
“It’s solely science, it’s additionally racing, and we owe it to Lewis to offer him with a automobile he can win an eighth championship he ought to have had beneath the belt in December,” Wolff mentioned.