Hamilton points to ‘something in the pipeline’ for Mercedes as he eyes Red Bull fight by end of season

3 years ago by Styrke to c/formula1

Lewis Hamilton has expressed hope that Mercedes will be in a position to challenge Red Bull by the end of the season, saying there should be more to come from the team after their double podium finish in Spain.

itsmikeyd 8 points 3 years ago

Here's hoping next season is more like 2021. Hopefully Merc can take at least one win this season, but I'm not counting on it.

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frank 2 points 3 years ago

They got one last year! And seemed to be further back to start. One Max problem and it seems totally possible.

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Ecksell 2 points 3 years ago

Agreed, Mercedes has indeed improved, but it will take a Max DNF and quite a bit of luck for them to get that top spot on the podium.

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Omgarm 1 point 3 years ago

Everybody here is already discounting Checo. So far he stepped up the two times it was needed.

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Speex 6 points 3 years ago

Will be nice to see some competition at the top for sure.

Mid field has been fun, but there’s something about not knowing who the number 1 will go to that has an effect on how I view the race quality.

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Omgarm 1 point 3 years ago

In 2019 I was still excited about what Max could do but the Mercs were almost untouchable at first. Hoping that this year things improve how they did back then.

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ZappySnap 4 points 3 years ago

It obviously isn’t going to matter for the championship, but I’d love to see Mercedes get back on form and make the later races competitive at the front. The midfield battles have been good so far this year, but you sort of have to ignore the fact that Red Bull exists.

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Tagger 2 points 3 years ago

I'd love to see that, but realistically I think we've just got to hope for next year now. Red bull have done an upsettingly brilliant job

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Posts 1 point 3 years ago

For sure, more competitiveness at the front would be really fun!

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highduc 3 points 3 years ago

RB have probably stopped developing the car for this year because they're dominating so what would be the point. So I can see other teams catching up towards the end of the year but they'll probably fall back again at the start of 2024.

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c0mpufreak 3 points 3 years ago

I don't think they've completely stopped just yet. We're not even halfway through the season. I can see them scale back their efforts significantly tho. But yeah, you're right. Probably the field will close up a bit towards the end of the season. How it'll effect 2024 we don't know. Here's to Merc and Ferrari not shitting the bed again and Aston continuing onwards on their upwards trend.

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atp2112 1 point 3 years ago

I can't help but feel like it will end up like 2019/20, when Merc took their foot off the pedal towards the end/Red Bull almost caught up, only for next year to reset everything

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melonpunk 1 point 3 years ago

Perez said at Spain that they only have minor updates coming now, though I'm not sure how much they'd really talk about that publicly. Feels like other teams need to make a leap forward to make a serious threat to RB. RB could go for the gamble and put focus on next year's car, I wonder if cost caps prevent that though.

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Rob 3 points 3 years ago

It sounds realistic. The effects of RB’s cost cap penalty will kick in in a few races, and with the lead they have they’ll be better off developing next year’s car. It’s better for them to win the championship by a small margin than by a landslide.

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FrankGRE 4 points 3 years ago

Red Bull's lead is pretty big though, Mercedes has to catch up quite a bit more to match their pace.

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highduc 3 points 3 years ago

Yeah I think so too. But this means there's a big chance they'll have an advantage at the start of next year too while other teams keep trying to catch up.

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c0mpufreak 1 point 3 years ago

I doubt that they'll be able to take the fight to RB by the end of the season honestly. RB or Max specifically hasn't really had a reason to show the true pace of their car so far. The difference in race pace is just too big.

Next season could be a different story. Surely Ferrari will also get their shit together, right? :D

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