Mercedes wary of potential difficult races to come despite recent progress

Mercedes appear to be inching closer to winning in Formula 1 again, but Toto Wolff is not yet certain his team can be a consistent contender.

Although inconsistency has been the defining trait of Mercedes’ 2022 season, recent rounds have suggested that the reigning eight-time Constructors’ champions are finding their way back onto the right path.

The Hungarian Grand Prix saw George Russell take his first career pole, also Mercedes’ first of the season, while at the Dutch Grand Prix Mercedes were contending for the win.

Without a late Safety Car, or if Mercedes had have followed a different route on strategy, then Lewis Hamilton could well have opened his and the team’s account for victories in 2022.

But, as the Belgian Grand Prix between those two rounds proved, Mercedes are not fully there yet when it comes to getting their W13 in the window with regularity.

That being said, a Mercedes victory in 2022 is now looking far more possible, although team principal Wolff is still airing on the side of caution, believing that his team may still have some tricky tracks to navigate.

The track of most concern is the Circuit of The Americas, host of the United States Grand Prix, which will take place between 21-23 October.

“Our performance is fundamentally ingrained in the car concept as it is, but we are now understanding better how everything interacts,” said Wolff, as per Motorsport.com.

“I think we can tune the car more precisely to fit and to target the performance window.

“Having said that, there will be races that are better for us and there might be some on the calendar that will be very difficult.

“Austin is something that we discussed: it can be a very difficult one. So you need to stay realistic in my opinion.

“We won’t be fighting for pole positions on all the other race tracks, but at least we need to really get us back to this point for next year.

“That bad one [at Spa] was really necessary in order to comprehend why it was going good here [in Zandvoort].

“As weird as it sounds for a high-tech science lab on wheels, the data doesn’t seem to correlate this year. And so we are gathering data on the track in order to put the puzzle together.

“We have added a few new bits of the puzzle to comprehend for next year. But, as I said before, I don’t expect the weekends like this every single week until the end of the year.

“There will be bumpier circuits that will not allow us to run the car where we want to run, and there will be tracks where there is a lot of drag limitation. So we’re not going to win the next seven races.”

That being said, if the opportunity is there to win, then Wolff says Mercedes will do everything to make that happen, rather than take the safer option of holding on for a spot on the podium.

“Every single day of my life, I’d rather risk everything for winning the race, than cementing in second and third,” Wolff affirmed.

A 2022 Mercedes win would be good for Formula 1

Considering the dominance which Mercedes have enjoyed for much of the turbo-hybrid era, it may seem strange to suggest that Formula 1 needs a Mercedes driver back on the top step of the podium, but it really would help to break the monotony of what has become a slightly stale season.

The new 2022 regulations were set to mark a new era for Formula 1 where a more open playing field was evident, yet Red Bull and Ferrari have accounted for all of the race wins so far this season.

Max Verstappen is cruising now to his second World Championship, 109 points ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez.

It would not be a good look for Formula 1 if Red Bull and Ferrari dominated again in 2023, with the regulations and budget cap working to make the series less predictable.

So, even if it would be nice for a different team to start challenging at the front, a Mercedes win in 2022 would at least give hope of a three-team battle for 2023 at the bare minimum.