I’m NOT Impressed With Mercedes…
They’re dropping the ball.
Since I’ve been watching F1, I have always been impressed by Mercedes’ team, cars, drivers, and engineers. Not only did everything function smoothly, but the dynamic in Formula 1’s Mercedes was touching.
The dynamic and talent of this team are why they’ve won over seven constructors’ championships, and they continue to have that dynamic. But I’m not impressed this year.
The beginning of the season last year was off to a rough start. Although Lewis won the first race at the Bahrain Grand Prix, he couldn’t keep the pace throughout the beginning and middle of the season.
All this was due to the Mercedes engine.
I had hoped they would have learned what was going on with the engine from last year so that they could continue to kick butt this year.
Of course, as I continued to see Mercedes fall behind, I did some research. I decided to give Mercedes the benefit of the doubt. “Maybe the reasons that their engines aren’t doing so well again is because of the new regulations that the FIA rolled out this year affected the engine,” but as I looked deeper, I realized that the FIA’s rules on engines didn’t change all that much.
The only difference was that the FIA mandated that the 1.6-liter V6 engine would run at 3000–4000 RPMs higher to improve the sound.
Other than that, not much was done.
Then I heard something that made a red flag pop off in my head.
As I watched one of the interviews for Toto Wolff, he commented that “The motor we have has won us seven championships, and I am confident that it will win us another.” Are you telling me that Mercedes uses virtually the same motor that they’ve been using for the past seven years?
But again, digging is essential.
And so I kept looking. It turns out they have changed the motor for 2022.
But that begs the question of why? Why is Mercedes having such a stinky run this year?
Lewis mentioned something about the balance of the car being off during the Pre-Race Show, and they moved the wing some to try and make up for the imbalance, but it didn’t seem to do much good.
But there is a ray of hope for us Mercedes fans.
After about 10 laps of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Lewis looked much more comfortable in his car and overtook several cars relatively quickly.
I’m hoping that, like last year, they iron out the kinks and flaws in their 2022 cars. Because from the way it’s going, it doesn’t seem like Mercedes will be a huge variant in the top contenders.
Let’s just hope that it’s a case of Lewis and Russel not being comfortable.
