The new season has brought along new regulations. This has somewhat wiped the slate clean when it came to the 2022 machinery. The result of this clean slate means that there has been a shift in the pecking order in the paddock and Mercedes have been on the wrong end of that shift. Although Mercedes dominated the previous era so far, at the start of this one, they are a few steps behind rivals Ferrari and even Red Bull.

Mercedes to play catch up

Ferrari and Red Bull have both been quicker than the Silver Arrows throughout the pre-season. However, the Bahrain GP cemented the fact that Mercedes is no longer the quickest car on the grid. During the first qualifying of the season, Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton was over half a second behind pole-sitter Charles Leclerc.

Despite all this, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has his sights set on the larger picture. He said, “The long game is 10 years…., I would qualify the race as a test.”

He went on to add, “There is more understanding of where the gaps lie….now we just need to regain land centimetre by centimetre.” when speaking about the current season.

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Although their start to the season has not been ideal, if there is one team on the grid that can pull it back, it is them.

Red Bull’s Gift to The Silver Arrows

The season opener in Bahrain was going to bring a whole lot of points for Red Bull, not to mention a P2 finish for Max Verstappen. However, a suspected issue with the fuel pump of both the Red Bulls meant that Verstappen and Perez failed to finish the race in the dying laps.

This was a blessing for Mercedes, who inherited a podium finish with Lewis Hamilton and a solid P4 for George Russell. However, this will not be the case regularly, as Red Bull will be looking to bounce back much stronger in the very next round.

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Do you think Mercedes can catch up and perhaps dominate another era of F1?