Mercedes have been off their game for two consecutive seasons now. Ever since the turbo-hybrid era of the sport kicked off in 2014, the Silver Arrows have been the all-conquering force. Naturally, anything less than a championship in the bag is time to ring the crisis bells at the team. While this was transpiring, Red Bull, who gave Mercedes their painful defeat in 2021 has gone from strength to strength. And as the Milton-Keynes-based outfit is tightening it’s grip, the Silver Arrows aren’t anywhere close to tapping out.

Ever since they realized that they has dropped the ball back in 2022, the Brackley-based team has only one goal in mind; to catch back up to the Bulls. However, it would appear that Mercedes has fallen quite a bit back as compared to Red Bull owing to a flawed design philosophy rabbit-hole the German team has fallen into. And while the road back up is tough, the team are confident to bounce back.

Australia was step no. 1 in Mercedes’ recovery playbook

The Australian Grand Prix was the first time in a long, long time that the Mercedes of old were seen. Lewis Hamilton missed out on his first win since Saudi 2021 but the pace was good and the signs promising. Even though they will take confidence in that result, the team has decided to be cautious in approach.

Team principal, Toto Wolff said, “Australia showed that we are making progress, although we need to be cautious about reading too much into a single result. But the signs in Melbourne were still encouraging and that has been a good motivator for the whole team heading into this gap in the calendar,” while speaking to the official website of the team.

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Back in Baku this weekend, the hopes to build on the result they achieved in Australia a month ago. “Over the next races, we want to keep on making small steps forward. The car will continue to evolve in the coming weeks, as we steadily bring performance and upgrades to the track. We’re excited to see their impact, but we know there is no magic bullet.”

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And while a comeback is on the cards, Wolff doesn’t believe 2023 to be the year when it happens.

Toto Wolff writes Mercedes’ 2023 off

With an eager Lewis Hamilton wanting to get one back at Max Verstappen for the humiliation he’s been serving the 7x champ since 2021, Mercedes need to be working double as hard to catch the Bulls up. But with Verstappen pulling away in the RB19 at the speed of light, Wolff reckons 2023 is already a foregone conclusion.

He was quoted by RacingNews365.com as saying, “We’re just two races in this year, but is it realistic when we look at the gaps? No, it’s not. But we just want to give it all we have and then see what the outcome of that is.”

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With Baku promising a blockbuster race once again, can Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton finally upset Verstappen & Co.?