Mercedes could not deliver a race-winning car in 2022. The folly in their construction saw 7x World Champion Lewis Hamilton constantly being outperformed by their new recruit, George Russell. Russell galloped through the porpoising issues of the W13, shocking everyone at the paddock and even at Mercedes Garage. The trackside engineering director of the team, Andrew Shovlin, has now figured out the key factor responsible for their champion being outperformed.

Shovlin mentions that the career trajectory of both Lewis and George has been different, making their approach to adapting to a ‘difficult’ car different. Lewis, in his rookie season, was only a point away from winning the world championship. In contrast, Russell signed for the struggling traditional British outfit, Williams. Russell was put in a challenging car since the inception of his career in F1.

As quoted by grandepremio.com, Shovlin told Motorsport, “George, having come from Williams, I think his experience probably put him in a good position to handle the car we were running at the start of the year. To be honest, at the start of the year, it was probably easier for George to adapt than it was for Lewis.” [Translated using Google]

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Everyone in the paddock had expected the two British drivers to fight each other for the championship. Instead, they had to fight the car.

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The regulation for 2022 pushed teams to change the design of their cars. Resultantly, the Brackely outfit built a bouncing nightmare. The eyes soon shifted from the new pairing’s adaptability to their struggle.

Russell’s caliber had come to light in 2020 when he had gotten the opportunity to be a replacement for Lewis Hamilton during the Sakhir Grand Prix. He scored the fastest lap of the race and led the race for 63 laps before he had to pit and give up positions due to a puncture.

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It was only a matter of time till Russell would get a full-time position to drive for the German team. The opportunity finally came when Russell replaced Valtteri Bottas at 8x championship winning team. However, things quickly went south for the team in the coming season with their ‘difficult’ car.

The drivers from Great Britain joined forces in 2022 to bring their team back to its former glory. Affirming this, Shovlin said, “What was good to see, almost immediately, was that both of them were working to put the team in a better place. The way they were working together, the way they were happy to share the workload–the #1 focus was on improving the car…”

“And it’s good that you have that maturity among the drivers and maturity within the team”

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The end of 2022 season momentum is what the German team needs to maintain in 2023. Having hopefully rectified their car for the upcoming season, can the Silver Arrows place one hand on the championship?