After the Australian Grand Prix, the dark clouds over the Mercedes control center in Woking must have lifted significantly. Ex-Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, however, puts his foot down on the euphoria brakes.
Second place for Lewis Hamilton, who also positively emphasized that he was finally able to overtake Formula 1 dominator Max Verstappen on the track again, Toto Wolff, who underlined that they were “satisfied with the pace” and suspected George Russell had He could even have won the race if engine damage on lap 17 hadn’t slowed him down: The Mercedes F1 racing team, which had dominated the motorsport premier class for years, showed a clear upward trend Down Under – no reason for Ralf Schumacher to expect a turnaround in the fight to date Red Bull.
“It’s a bit of a one-hit wonder,” said Schumacher to “Sky” about Mercedes’ racing performance. “Australia has always been a circuit where a car that works halfway suddenly works well,” continued the 47-year-old.
The same applies to the strong performance of the Haas team, which surprised with Nico Hülkenberg in seventh place, and for Williams, where Alex Albon was a sure contender for a top place until his retirement.
That should encourage Mercedes
Schumacher still has a big glimmer of hope for Mercedes in his quiver. The race showed that the Mercedes engine “is actually the strongest at the moment”. All cars that have Mercedes engines under the hood were “extremely strong”. “Of course that’s a good sign,” Schumacher encourages the Silver Arrows.
The big question, however, is how well Mercedes will do its “homework” in the three-week F1 break before the next Grand Prix and thus possibly close the gap to Red Bull.
Since the race in China was canceled without replacement, it will not continue in Azerbaijan until April 28th.
