After an extremely difficult start to the season, Mercedes finally showed some progress in Monaco and especially Montreal. But can they really fight at the top constantly?
On Canadian soil, the Silver Arrows fought against reining world champion Red Bull and McLaren, on a weekend where Ferrari was nowhere to be seen. George Russell snatched pole position on Saturday, setting the same time as Max Verstappen, who did that later in the session and was therefore second on the gird.
On Sunday, despite Russell’s podium (P3) and Lewis Hamilton’s P4 after a solid comeback, Mercedes felt they had missed a great opportunity to actually win the Grand Prix. Both Russell and the seven-time world champion showed blistering pace in some stages of the race, but couldn’t capitalize, and Verstappen still managed to win.
Mercedes recently brought a package of upgrades, which was completed with a new front wing that seemed to work well on the W15 in Montreal. Not only that, the British squad is also working to bring a brand-new floor in Spain to continue the good momentum the team has had in the last few weeks.
Toto Wolff also added that the outfit has been working on many details, both visible and not, that are helping to find every grain of performance needed to finally improve the speed of the W15.
“Sometimes when you bring a highly visible part like a bodywork or front wing, this is pretty much the talk of what has changed the performance,” he said.
“But the truth is we have, over the last three races, brought so many new parts, visible and invisible to the eye, that have contributed milliseconds to more performance.
“I think this is where those marginal gains then have that positive effect. That was just a huge effort of the factory, so I think the wheel has started to get some real motion on it.”
However, despite Mercedes’ great effort in trying to understand what to improve on the car, a few other factors need to be taken into account for their recent improved performance.
Firstly, Monaco is a one-off race that is difficult to read and understand. The pecking order can easily change, and a not-so-perfect car might work better around the narrow streets of Monaco, but struggle on almost all the other tracks on the calendar.
As a matter of fact, Ferrari scored a 1-3 finish in Monte Carlo, but couldn’t make the car work in Montreal. Not only that, though, the track and atmospheric conditions are also a huge factor that can dictate how a team performs.
Back at the Chinese GP, Mercedes seemed more competitive than the previous races both in the Sprint Qualifying (Hamilton P2), and also during the Sprint Race. Russell managed to recover a few positions, and his teammate fought at the front of the grid for most of the time. An important detail to underline here is that during both sessions the conditions were tricky and mixed.
During the Sprint Qualifying, it was cold and the second part of it saw rain making the conditions even trickier. For the Sprint Race, it wasn’t raining, but it was still cold, and those are the conditions that seem to enhance Mercedes’ performance. On the other hand, though, Mercedes struggled in qualifying and during the race, as the weather conditions were slightly improving.
That is exactly the same thing that happened in Montreal, rain and cold conditions meant that the Silver Arrows were fighting at the top once again. Of course, from China to Canada, the British outfit has surely found more performance and the upgrades have helped.
However, it doesn’t mean that they will be certainly fighting for victory in Spain. At the same time, though, with the new front wing that seems to be working well – and maybe a new floor – they could create some troubles for Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari. That could happen, especially if one of the drivers of those teams makes mistakes, which is not impossible, as we’ve seen with Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez in Canada.