The sincericide of the Mercedes leader for the role in Imola: “We don’t deserve to have a world champion”

Lewis Hamilton lived a weekend to forget in Imola, where Formula 1 is arguing the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, fourth date of the season. The seven-time champion finished 13th (not scored) and left convinced to be with him W13 under current conditions there will be no chance to fight for the title. Probably not even for any success. Furthermore, on Sunday he saw how Max Verstappen, with whom he fought last year until the last date for the crown, take a lap in front of him and climb to the top of the podium. This is the first time the Briton has finished a lap behind the winner since Mexico 2017.

His debacle on the Italian circuit has deepened the crisis Mercedes and formed a strong self -criticism at various levels of the German team. The crudest analysis of the situation is the on toto wolff. “We are not enough for a world champion; we don’t deserve the world champion. We need to fix the car, ”the team’s executive director said.

Mercedes ’problems began on Friday, when both cars fell out of the top 10 in qualifying. On Saturday, at first sprint of the championship, Hamilton was 14th and his teammate George Russell, 11th. In the final, the team’s new incorporation in 2022 signed a good career and finished fourth. But his performance could not lessen the frustration for the seven -time disaster championstuck in the second platoon and did not know how to overtake AlphaTauri from Pierre Gasleythat he had before a good part of the trial.

Once the race was over, an exchange between Wolff and Hamilton was heard on the radio, clarifying the impotence that existed at Mercedes.

“Lewis, sorry about the car you have to drive. I know it’s unmanageable and not what we should be looking for results. It was a disastrous career. But we’re leaving here, ”the Austrian apologized.“ Don’t worry, Toto. Let’s keep trying, “replied the Briton.

Moments later, Hamilton commented: “The race was frustrating. I just wanted to overtake, but I wasn’t too close to do it. I was an easy target. Somehow George scored. Sorry to the teams for not doing more great. ” .

“It’s hard, but we’re all feeling it. Everyone is putting their heads down, trying their best to move forward as quickly as possible. But now that I’m not in the championship, I have no doubt“added seventh in the championship, 58 points behind the leader, Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton, who sees his chances of winning his eighth title this year and breaking the record he shared with Michael Schumacher as a utopia, became more critical over the course of the weekend. On Friday he compared his W13 to hers McLaren of the 2009 season, the “worst car he has ever driven” in big circus. “This car isn’t too far from that one, but it has potential,” he said.

On Saturday, then sprintHe made sure he didn’t see the “light at the end of the tunnel”. “The previous training sessions left us feeling good compared to free training on Friday, but on this track it was very hard to overtake and I was stuck in traffic. It was complicated and I think the race was it will be the same ”, he commented, foretelling what I will live on Sunday.

“I think the whole year is going to be hard for us. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re working to find it.”he admits.

After Saturday, Wolff described Imola’s appointment as a “total failure” and as an “embarrassing experience” for pilots. And on Sunday he admitted that while there are no divisions within the team and everyone wants to make their way out of the hole, they still haven’t found a way to “unleash the potential that’s in the car”.

“George drives really well considering the car, which is very wet. I think he showed us what a car can do when it has a clear track. But Lewis is in between Alpine and Alpha Tauri and you just can’t overtake when you’re on the DRS train, ”he explains.

And he reflects: “I think we know which direction we should go and that will bring us much closer to the other teams. But so far we don’t have a key. We don’t know right now where we went wrong“.

At Mercedes, there is a lot of self -criticism and everyone tries to stay optimistic, despite the obvious problems and lack of competitiveness of silver arrowswho are not rivals for Red Bull and Ferrari, the great protagonists of the championship.

But the German team seemed far from finding a way around a car with potential, but with poor performance on the track. And Hamilton, accustomed to winning, sees himself farther away from the title fight.

Ang pouringthe big problem of W13

Mercedes was one of the teams that suffered the most pouringthose bounces that form on vehicles at full speed, especially on straight roads, as a result of the ground effect.

Moreover, this phenomenon is very strong in silver arrows that in Imola, while training on Friday, George Russell’s car it bounced so hard that the floor stand broke. And this is one of the big complications facing the German team, as it forces drivers to “remove their foot from the accelerator”, causing them to lose time on straight roads.

Russell himself admitted after Sunday’s race that the rebound was leaving him “breathless”. “This is the most intense thing I have ever felt. This was the first weekend I was really struggling with back and chest pain due to the intensity of the rebound. This is what you need to do to make quick laps. But hopefully we can find a solution, because it’s not sustainable for us. ”

Hamilton claimed that the pouring the team was shocked. “The engineers were super innovative in design and our wind tunnel tells us we have very good downforce. Unfortunately, we got off the track and we didn’t see that … Because in the wind tunnel there was no bounce. and we saw that phenomenon. And it’s harder to fix than we thought, “he said.

Wolff admitted the problem is more serious with his vehicles than with other teams. Comparing the W13 to Ferraris, he assured: “Him pouring Quite different from us. Our frequency seems to be higher and the main difference is when they hit the brakes their car stabilizes and ours does not. Pilots are trained, but clearly you can’t drive like this“.

And he made sure they were working on “interesting ideas and concepts” that should affect the car’s performance in the next race and improve ground airflow to mitigate that rebound.