The incredible Mercedes brand to “build Hamilton’s car from scratch” in Austria

Mercedes had shown that they were capable of fighting for the lead. But in qualifying Q3 both cars crashed and their options ended there. “The drivers are fine, but the team will have a lot of work to do,” said the Formula 1 champion team. Although the high quality of its staff allowed it, as he revealed on Thursday, “to build from scratch”. Lewis Hamilton’s car in just three and a half hours.

In the latest video of the Mercedes race report, Mercedes technical director Mike Elliott revealed that record number and explained what happened behind the scenes after Hamilton and teammate George Russell clashed in the final qualifying segment, but they recovered with third and fourth places respectively at Sunday’s Grand Prix. Prize.

“There was a lot of work to prepare those cars and in Lewis’s case the crash had caused a lot of damage to the chassis, which although it was only cosmetic damage, it was damage we were unable to repair in the field. On Saturday morning we had to rebuild his car from scratchElliott said.

“So,” he continued, “that car had to be built from scratch, adjusting the engine, the gearbox, all the suspension, all kinds of systems that bolted the chassis, everything had to be put in place and the mechanics managed to do it in three and a half hours on Saturday morning, an incredible resultand all the credit goes to them for bringing us back and into the second practice. “

While it seems insignificant, Elliot pointed out that being able to do the training before the sprint race was no small feat. “The advantage of getting into FP2 is that you can make sure Lewis’s car set-up was correct, the balance was correct and he was happy with the car in time for the Sprint,” he said.

On the other, the technical manager argued a possible reason why both drivers collided in the third quarter: “I think if you watched Friday, we were encouraged by the pace we had. I think we went through several qualifying sessions thinking we had a great opportunity to get to the front row on the grid, a position we haven’t been in in the last few races, and [que es] maybe the reason we ended up with two accidents with both cars: the drivers were just trying to find that little bit extra in the car, trying to get us to that front row of the grid, with the potential pace we think we have in that car “.

Precisely the final positions in the last race on Sunday, according to Elliot, showed that Mercedes “is starting to take a step forward, towards the head”. “Even if we want to fight in the lead, we want to be the fastest car we can be.. On circuits like this, I think it’s a good result for us and it shows that the parts we’re bringing to the car are starting to take the step forward we want to take, and hopefully we can keep making those strides and put ourselves in the position that we can. compete in the lead in every race, ”he was excited.

Now with no road car on the near horizon, which spawned so many problems in Mercedes, the next Formula 1 race will be Sunday 24 July at the Paul Ricard circuit for the French Grand Prix. That track could be beneficial to Mercedes due to its smooth surface and the long straights the W13 will have to adapt to.