As the turbo-hybrid era of Formula 1 came to a close in 2021, Mercedes had to hand over the reins to Red Bull, which marked the beginning of Max Verstappen‘s era of dominance. It’s like the changing of the guard in tennis. Novak Djokovic’s domination finally ended when Carlos Alcaraz defeated him at Wimbledon. But just because he was happy that the next generation was finally taking control didn’t mean he appreciated losing to one of them. That’s the case with Mercedes too. While Lewis Hamilton & Co. might appreciate the developments Red Bull has made for the sport’s progress, they sure aren’t happy to be on the receiving end of Red Bull’s demolition. And that sums up what everyone at Mercedes is feeling now—unhappy.

It’s been five months since the 2023 season started. 12 races into the season, and every one of them has seen a Red Bull driver take the win—Verstappen more often than not. On the other hand, Mercedes has been struggling to finish on the podium most race weekends, mainly because the Brackley outfit has almost no idea how the W14 behaves at several tracks. And because of this, its development over a season is slower than usual. While Mercedes’ Belgian GP outing might have seemed like a strong one—with Hamilton in P4 and George Russell in P6—Hamilton still believes Mercedes has a lot of work to do. 

In a post-race interview, as quoted by motorsport.nextgen-auto.com, he said, “None of us at Mercedes are happy in the sense that we’re not where we want to be, but we’re continually improving.” Lewis is content to some extent that they have achieved some podiums and a pole but it is not the ideal scenario where he wishes to challenge for the world title like he used to. The Brit further added, “We’re only making small progress, and we’re looking for that big step to put us in contention to play with Red Bull. It won’t be easy, but everyone is working on it.” [Translated via Google]

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He hasn’t lost hope and knows Mercedes has what it takes to get back in fighting form. He added, “Through adversity, it builds character and the strength of the team. And one day, we will get back to where we need to be.” But with the summer break already here, Mercedes is in a challenging spot with questions about the W14 needing answers if it hopes to have a better second half.

Lewis Hamilton & Co. will drift into unknown territory during the summer break

The summer break is meant for teams to analyze their first halves of the season, understand the data they’ve collected, and work on improving their cars depending on what they find. That’s where the problem lies for Hamilton & Co. They have very little representative and conclusive data that can point them in the right direction regarding the W14’s development. And F1 journalist Peter Windsor pointed out just that.

In his post-race analysis on YouTube, he said, “Good luck to Lewis going into the summer break. Not sure Mercedes have any of the answers they really need in terms of what they’re going to be doing with the car. And is performance still on a full fuel load a big question mark as we saw in Hungary, and to some extent [in Belgium]?” To add to Mercedes’ concerns, Hamilton reported that the W14 started porpoising again, a problem they seemed to have gotten around last season.

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