Mercedes F1 Boss Admits ‘Slap in the Face’ After Shocking French GP Twist

It’s a high possibility that camp Mercedes has given up in totality after Toto Wolff also made disappointing remarks. Post suffering with no race wins for 11 races, and fighting their way through extreme porpoising, their W13 has still produced nothing remarkable. Despite a 2 week break and high hopes, the silver machinery was nowhere near the top two competitors.

In fact, it was a season start repeat where George Russell and Lewis Hamilton looked in serious danger. After their car’s surprising lack of performance, the duo has practically muscled their way into Q3. The likes of McLaren, Alpine, and even Alfa Romeo looked better than the scuffling Mercedes.

Well, Toto Wolff was interviewed again regarding the shock qualifying. He revealed, “We don’t understand what went wrong. If you had told me that we would end up being between seven tenths and 1.1 seconds behind, that would be a small slap in the face.”

Wolff admitted that “The car is on edge” and they’re failing to find the sweet spot. Further, the car has evidently been hard to tame where the team has failed to understand how to find the “super subtle difference”.

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For these octuple-time constructors champions, 2022 has been one of their hardest tenures. Despite promises, night-long hard work, and faith, the team is failing to be up there.

Mercedes in trouble for the rest of the season?

Turns out even the Brackley outfit’s drivers have also given up. Post-quali, Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, looked in disbelief and announced “we’re not in the same league in terms of performance of the car”.

From here on, it seems like the British team has lost hold of their machinery. After half of the season done, they’re arguably still failing to understand how to make it faster without extra issues.

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A return from here on looks very tough given the top two red teams are faster than one would have expected. The Mercedes team can’t compete with them and though there might be some great battles, it’s hard to believe that Russell or Hamilton can win a race. So, is there nothing else in the store, and has Mercedes accepted defeat?