Mercedes not confident of fight against Ferrari for P2 in Championship as the points gap comes down
Mercedes key personnel Andrew Shovlin admitted there might come a time when Ferrari surpassed them in the Championship.
Follow Us
The 2023 season has so far taught the fans to expect the unexpected. At the start of the season, it seemed like McLaren were not even serious about the Championship. Their new recruit Oscar Piastri failed to finish the season opener at Bahrain while Lando Norris drew up at the last spot. And then there were the Aston Martins that showed amazing speed with Fernando Alonso becoming a regular face on the podium. Similarly, Ferrari showed poor performance during most of the first half of the season, leaving the Tifosis crestfallen.
Fast forward to the races that came after the F1 summer break, it seemed like Ferrari have rediscovered their pace. The Dutch GP saw Carlos Sainz in top 5. In their team’s home ground in Monza, both Sainz and his teammate Charles Leclerc scored P3 and P4 finishes respectively. Finally, at the Singapore GP, while the Red Bulls were left confused with a sudden drop in their results, Carlos Sainz cruised to victory with Leclerc in the fourth spot.
Whatever upgrades Ferrari have added to their SF-23 seem to have worked out just fine. This has led to some concern over at Mercedes’ quarters at Stuttgart. Not very long ago, the German outfit was enjoying their second spot in the World Championship but Ferrari’s back to back blasts have gotten them to worry. The Maranello team is now only twenty points away from catching up to Mercedes and possibly usurping them from P2 in the standings.
Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin admits the team has not performed well lately
Ever since returning to the second half of the season after the summer break, Mercedes did see Lewis Hamilton bring in a podium in Singapore. But that has been a single, isolated incident. Overall, the team’s results have dropped drastically while Ferrari’s have only gone up. This has led to some speculations regarding Ferrari taking P2 in the World Championship.
Andrew Shovlin commented on Ferrari’s chances of outscoring Mercedes (as quoted by PitDebrief), “It’s difficult to know. We’ve not performed well, they’ve bought an update. So there’s too many variables to really work out exactly where they sit. The gap wasn’t big today. We’re looking at things that we can do in the next few races to try and bring a bit of performance.”
Meanwhile, Ferrari fans had pegged their hopes on Charles Leclerc for bringing a Championship to Maranello all this while. But the recent results prove that it is Carlos Sainz, and not Leclerc, who should get the spotlight. The Spaniard has only spent one and a half seasons with the Scuderia till now and has already won two Grands Prix for them. So, it remains to be seen how Carlos Sainz has continue scoring amazingly in the future races too.
In case you missed it:
/techfirstnow/media/agency_attachments/kATjCXskQdJKkXN0OuqW.png)