The Mercedes AMG F1 team finds themselves comfortably seated in P2 in the Constructors’ championship. Even though it seems like one slot away from the top, the gap between the leading Red Bull and them is massive. As the Silver Arrows are no more in a position to vie for the title, Mike Elliot revealed that their “too cautious” approach to safety was what hurt them in development.
Red Bull is leading the world championship with 503 points as F1 enters its summer break. Majestically, they claimed all 12 wins in 12 rounds so far. Compared to them, the Silver Arrows look bleak as they trail the defending champions by 256 points.
Black livery appreciation post. 🖤 pic.twitter.com/y2SwKCbXZX
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 11, 2023
This also highlights the fact that the dominant Milton Keynes outfit now has double the points Mercedes have. Most importantly, Max Verstappen alone has more points than the entire Brackley brigade. All this despite being in the quest for redemption at Mercedes.
Admittedly, the team has made quite an improvement from last year. They made significant progress after rectifying their porpoising issue and this was followed by their sidepod and floor overhauling.
Elliot revealed what kept Mercedes at bay despite improvements
Elliot, the Mercedes Chief Technical Officer has recently opened up on what put buffers into Mercedes’ advancements. Talking about this, the British engineer said that they had two ways to go. Go aggressive or go safe and the team decided to go with the latter.
In doing so, they had less painful paths to rectify when they went wrong and this was what hurt them from going against Red Bull, stated the 49-year-old according to The Race.
Enjoy the break, boys. 👋 pic.twitter.com/bBMMhzhVoJ
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) August 4, 2023
“We chose the cautious path, knowing that it would be less painful to correct if we were wrong. The story of our year so far has been mostly about finding out that we had been too cautious and making the changes to correct that,” he added.
The better half of the 2023 season is over. With just 10 races left, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison revealed that the Silver Arrows will go the way of developing their 2024 F1 challenger.
Lewis Hamilton and his 2023 expectations
Star driver Lewis Hamilton lately conveyed that competing against the mighty RB-19 is unrealistic this year. With the superior straight-line speed and mammoth DRS advantage, the W14 is weak against the Red Bull challenger.
However, it’s a never say never mindset for Hamilton. If not this year, he believes the team will do their part for the next. But for now, the Silver Arrows will look to keep their P2 position against the likes of Aston Martin, Ferrari, and McLaren.
As things stand, the German giants very much look to be in control of P2 even if the British or the Italian team are very close. If they can, it’ll be an impressive improvement from where they were in the 2022 F1 season.
