Well, that was a surprise! Mercedes have been struggling throughout the pre-season testing in both Barcelona and Bahrain. They had been miles behind the frontrunners Ferrari and Red Bull. But because of the better reliability, the team scored a podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix, courtesy of Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, mentioned that 3 and 4 are excellent results for the team.

Wolff mentioned the team has been behind both Ferrari and Red Bull throughout the weekend. So finishing on the podium despite their challenges is a very nice surprise for them.

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He also revealed that the same result in 2021 would have been a disaster, but in 2022, it is very positive.

Toto Wolff analyzes the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix for Mercedes

As reported by Motorsport-Turkey, the Austrian mentioned that looking at the circumstances this season, the 3-4 will be morally boosting for Mercedes. But he acknowledged the fact they are currently 5th and 6 on the grid behind both Ferrari and Red Bull.

“You can see how we managed the prospects. It would have been very sad if we were third and fourth last year. But this year we’re competing with the Red Bulls and our superiors. I think the third and fourth place is a great result,” said Wolff.

“We were almost at the front in terms of speed, before the soft tires lost performance. We were fighting not Leclerc, but the others. But the performance loss on the tires is huge. Later we had to do something different, but switching to hard tires made things worse. He was slow on every lap. That was a lesson to us,” said Wolff.

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It is unusual to see the German team in this kind of situation, as they have dominated the sport since the beginning of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014. Let’s see how long they take to bring in more upgrades to develop the W 13 and make it more competitive this season.

It would be nice to see them battling against Red Bull and Ferrari in 2022, as it would be a great spectacle for the sport. Let’s see how they finish in Saudi Arabia next week on the fastest street circuit in the world.