With Lewis Hamilton Resentful and George Russell Gutted, Mercedes Boss Kicks Back and Relaxes

Srijon Jana | 09/07/2023
With Lewis Hamilton Resentful and George Russell Gutted, Mercedes Boss Kicks Back and Relaxes

Mercedes were set to take the British GP by storm as they promised to bring a ‘big’ upgrade package to Silverstone. However, things haven’t quite turned out the way they hoped. they would. Mercedes failed to show pace in practice or during qualifying, which worried both Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Team principal Toto Wolff, on the other hand, seems chilled out.

At Silverstone, Mercedes have been convincingly beaten by their customer team McLaren both in terms of development and results. McLaren brought in new upgrades for the British GP, and the qualifying results speak for themselves.

Lando Norris managed to finish P2, two-tenths behind the unstoppable Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri followed his teammate and managed to put his car P3. This will be the first time since 2008 that McLaren will have a car starting from the first row at their home race.

As for Mercedes, they have fallen further down the grid from where they were in the last few races. Hamilton managed to qualify in P7 whereas Russell could muster only a sixth-place finish. Other than that, Ferrari too outperformed the Silver Arrows, which is a serious sign of concern for them.

Toto Wolff is satisfied with the results

Despite both Hamilton and Russell worrying about their car’s performance, Toto Wolff seems to be satisfied with what they have achieved during qualifying. According to Silverarrows.net, Wolff told Sky Sports after the race that he is happy with the results of the team.

“I think we did OK,” said Wolff. “It’s all so tiny [margins]. We are competitive in terms of lap times for what we expected.” Wolff explained that the main thing to focus on now is the race pace, and to figure out how faster they need to be in order to overtake the teams in front.

After failing to deliver on the promises of being fast enough at Silverstone, it’s evident that Mercedes has some work to do to catch up with the likes of Ferrari and McLaren. The Silver Arrows managed to finish last season with one race win, and are hoping to match that, or do better. However, as things stand, that looks increasingly unlikely.

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are worried about their performance

Hamilton seemed very worried about his result on Saturday and the fact that they were overtaken by McLaren. As reported by Motorsport.com, Hamilton spoke about his former team’s result in the aftermath of the qualifying session. He said, “It’s not a blow. It’s just a wake-up call for us. Others are overtaking us and we need to do more.”

Russell was also worried about the one-lap pace of the Mercedes. The Silver Arrows had struggled massively during the practice sessions on Friday. As reported by Crash, Russell revealed that according to the data gathered during practice, they were only good enough to get to P17 and P18 during Qualifying.


Compared to the simulations, a P6 and P7 finish seemed like a good result, for George Russell. He also spoke about how McLaren will be an issue for them during the race on Sunday. “Well done to McLaren. They came from nowhere and are the big unknown for tomorrow,” said Russell

 

Post Edited By: Somin Bhattacharjee
George Russell Lewis Hamilton McLaren Toto Wolff

About the author

Srijon Jana

Srijon Jana is a Formula 1 writer at The SportsRush. As a medical undergrad with a passion for motorsports, Srijon loves juggling between cadavers and cars with ease. He started watching F1 when he was only 11, and the beautiful cars grabbed his interest. Even now, he religiously follows all the Grands Prix, and when he is not gushing over Charles Leclerc, he likes to dabble in football as well. He is a college quizzer with several state-level and national-level accolades. He is a proud Ferrari fan, and loves to pass his free time reading, watching movies, and spending some quality time with his friends and family.

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