Mercedes F1 had huge fears over the Monza weekend, but the Italian Grand Prix gave the team new grounds for excitement. George Russell turned second place on the grid into a podium finish, and Lewis Hamilton climbed from 19th to fifth place, which made Toto Wolff, their manager, happy.
“We were clearly the third fastest team, so third and fifth was probably the most we could hope for,” Wolff said. « Although the gaps weren’t as big as at Spa, it was clearly a track that didn’t suit us. »
« So it was all about maximizing our result and limiting the damage with Lewis. It was nice to see him fighting through the peloton, he seemed a bit stuck at the start and then once the tires got into the good window, he was very quick. »
“As for George, he did everything we asked of him, and it was another faultless race. As far as the championship is concerned, we are 35 points behind Ferrari with six races remaining, and we just have to do our best every week and see where we stand after Abu Dhabi. »
Wolff also wanted to salute the fine ninth place of his reserve, Nyck de Vries, called in as reinforcements at Williams F1: « Finally, a word for Nyck: he went all out by jumping into a car he barely drove in FP3 and then scoring two points. He showed exactly what he is capable of. »
“Can’t do better than third”
Andrew Shovlin, the team’s director of track engineering, also noted Mercedes’ very good result, on a circuit that must have been difficult for the team. However, he confirms that despite a better pace in the race, Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen were untouchable.
« Looking at Spa and Monza, the car is clearly struggling with low downforce levels, so coming back with a podium for George and fifth for Lewis from the back row is a solid result. » notes Shovlin.
« It was a difficult weekend, we lacked rear stability on corner entry which meant the car was a bit unwieldy on a single lap. The race gaps were a bit better but it was still impossible to do anything strategically that would have allowed George to do better than third. »
« Looking back, putting the hard tires on his car on the first stop was a mistake, but he did a good job and would have kept Carlos at bay if the race had ended without the safety car. »
« Lewis had a rough start to the race getting stuck in a train of cars, but he kept pushing and once he looked clean he was able to put in some good laps. Towards the end of the race, we weren’t getting back on Sergio fast enough to catch him. »
« But once they stopped it gained us a position and it looked like we were going to keep it, but once the safety car came out it was guaranteed. »
The engineer now hopes his team can do better at the end of the season: « Triple races are never easy for the team and this one was particularly difficult, but we hope to perform better in the last races. »
“The battle with Ferrari for second place gives us a good target to achieve for the end of the season, so we will use the next two weeks to prepare as the end of the season will be difficult with six races in eight weeks.
