Mercedes acknowledge another low-key run in F1 Italian GP, as George Russell and Toto Wolff add on the Sergio Perez battle.
While McLaren and Ferrari had their own race to get through in F1 Italian GP, Mercedes and Red Bull were left to fight among themselves. At the start, Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton went head-to-head but it lasted only for couple of laps.
Hamilton got away from Verstappen at ease and stayed in front that way. The Brit wasn’t too happy still as he rued the qualifying result which cost him the chance to tackle at least one Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, where he thought he would have finished.
The other Mercedes of Russell had to take avoiding action at Turn 1 against Oscar Piastri, which dropped him behind Hamilton, Verstappen and even Perez. That left him to fight the Mexican all-through the race where their strategies co-incided.
One such moment came between the two when Russell had to take avoiding action at Turn 1, which the Brit thought was marginal in the end. He didn’t have much to say against though as there was no contact and since he got back the place, it was fine.
But overall, Wolff reckons Mercedes has lost the performance arc after summer break even though Monza was better than Zandvoort. They are checking out the two floors they have if the performance drop is related to the new floor they introuced.
Race –
Hamilton: “My qualifying performance at the end yesterday, and then just race pace, we had more degradation, and just generally, we were lacking one or two tenths in the race. I probably could have finished ahead of one Ferrari if I had been further ahead.”
Russell: “I just got caught out by Oscar’s braking point. I touched the brakes, I started locking up because I was so close to him, and I had to take avoidant action. It’s quite upsetting when your whole weekend goes away from you so quick. But looking at the pace afterwards, I don’t think we would have been able to keep up with the McLarens and Ferrari. The front wing lost a huge amount of performance in Stint 1, so we had to pit at lap 8.
“Obviously, you changed the wing, slow stop. It was a really disappointing day, but ultimately, we didn’t have the pace. The sport’s a bit strange at the moment with how Red Bull have lost so much pace. Ferrari seem to be struggling in Zandvoort and all the races prior, but then they were so quick on Sunday in Zandvoort and this whole weekend, so they’re already there.”
Wolff: “Our own race was better than Zandvoort but we are quite a chunk from pre-summer performances where we were, I think we scored podium in six races and three victories, two on merit. We don’t seem to be playing there at the moment, in the front. And when you’re on the back foot pace wise, then obviously you’re in a bit of a no man’s land in terms of strategy. So, it’s good that we have a little bit of time to analyse that.”
Strategy, tyre
Hamilton: “[One stop] wouldn’t have made any difference. The tyre was okay, it was nothing special. It’s just, again, it’s just like you’re either graining the left front or graining on the left rear. We just didn’t have the pace. We have to go and look and try and understand why. Also, because we looked better on Friday than we did. We got almost slower through the weekend, or others got faster or we were too light [on fuel] and they were heavy.”
Wolff: “We suffered from front-left graining. It came at various times. With George the graining started a bit earlier on stint one, and then we were very defensive in our lap times in the second stint, in order to maybe extract more tyre performance, maybe to make a one-stop last. But then the graining came up. But it was so easy to get it wrong. As a driver, it’s very difficult to judge, can you make it to the end or not? Because you see the front is opening up or the front is starting to grain, so yeah, graining was an issue.”
Perez battle –
Russell: “Fun? I’m not sure you can describe that fun because I thought I was about to go airborne when he was squeezing me at 340. But hard racing, and at least glad to make it one position. It was right at the very limit. No, there’s nothing to say [to Checo]. We didn’t crash at the end of the day, and I got past him. Half a centimetre more and it could have been a different story.”
Wolff: “I’m trying to be objective, and with the George incident on Turn 1, it’s probably racing that can happen. But with Checo, that was a move under braking. Was there enough gap, when the gap was tiny? But still, the move came late.”
Here’s how F1 Italian GP panned out
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