Till the 2021 F1 season, the Mercedes F1 team was a force to reckon with. They won the constructors’ championship for eight seasons in a row starting in 2014. This was right before George Russell joined the Silver Arrows. Since he joined, things have been going downhill, and the Silver Arrows have won just one race in the last two seasons. Now, Russell feels that they have to take a lot of inspiration from their days of glory.
Since the onset of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014, the Silver Arrows have been unstoppable. They won all the constructors’ championships between 2014 and 2021. Also, they won all but one drivers’ title during this time period. It was Lewis Hamilton in 2014 and 2015. Nico Rosberg in 2016 and Hamilton again from 2017 to 2020. Unfortunately, they lost out to Max Verstappen in dramatic fashion the very next year.
P18 to P6. 👊 Fast car, strong strategy and some fun overtakes along the way. Thanks to the team for continuing to push. Onwards to Spa. pic.twitter.com/xgY1QLdjsM
— George Russell (@GeorgeRussell63) July 23, 2023
However, as the new regulations kicked in in 2022, they lost their edge to rivals Red Bull. And now, they are out on their way to seek inspiration from their majestic days.
George Russell trying to take inspiration from their glorious past
Russell has recently opened up about Mercedes wanting to dig through their glorious past and taking lessons amid rough times. The Mercedes driver, who won the race back in Sau Paolo in 2022 admitted to this.
Talking about this, the former Williams driver stated as per F1 Journal, “We’re looking a lot at what the previous generations of cars were like during the glory years for Mercedes and we’re kind of taking that as inspiration because that was clearly one of the best cars in history. So that gives us some clues to where we need to work.”
Three Mercedes @F1 #GermanGP Winners…
1954 🏆 = Fangio
2014 🏆 = Rosberg
2016 🏆 = HamiltonThree Mercedes #F1 World Champions… 👌 pic.twitter.com/KaaDly7mxd
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 22, 2018
Admittedly, the Silver Arrows truly need inspiration as they are far behind Red Bull in terms of pace this season. Unless there is some drastic improvement from their side, it seems highly unlikely that they will win a race this year.
Mercedes can take inspiration from Aston Martin and McLaren
Two teams who have made massive strides this season are McLaren and Aston Martin. The latter were P7 in the title at this stage last year, but are P2 correctly. They could have arguably done a lot better had Lance Stroll helped the team more.
As for McLaren, they were struggling to get into the points in the beginning of the season. From there, they are currently regarded as the second fastest team on the grid. As things stand, Mercedes can look to have inspiration from these rivals.
For now, the Brackley-based team will look to solidify their P2 position in the Constructors’ championship and nullify the challenge from McLaren, Aston Martin, and Ferrari.