“Mercedes has complex problems with their car,” Mika Hakkinen tries to unlock issues with the W-13

“Mercedes has complex problems with their car,” Mika Hakkinen tries to unlock issues with the W-13

Mercedes W-13

Mercedes has been struggling to conjure up any sort of of pace in the first four rounds of F1. Both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton have been unable to come to grips with their challenger, W-13. It’s been one of the toughest starts of the season for the seven time world champion who has lacked any sort of pace and Imola was yet another indication of the kind of problems that he is going through.

The issues were pretty evident during the pre season testing in Barcelona and Bahrain. But Mercedes has an image of sandbagging in the last few seasons but the case has been completely different. We all thought that the prowess of the W-13 will come to the fore when the season begins. But the car has been no match to the raw pace shown by the potential title contenders, Ferrari and Red Bull.

While George Russell has been able to grind out the results, Lewis Hamilton has continued to hit new lows. In Saudi Arabia, the unthinkable happened. We saw the seven time world champion failing to make it out of Q1 and something similar in Imola which saw him unable to make it to Q3. The problems can be put down to a combination of some average driving and the porpoising issues faced by the drivers.

FS Video

Mika Hakkinen gives a reality check to Mercedes after their average performance at the Imola GP

Mercedes W-13
Mercedes W-13

Mika Hakkinen has been very critical of the issues of the W-13. He has given honest assessment of the current situation of Mercedes. He said, “Mercedes clearly has quite complex problems with their car.” 

“It seems amazing to say it, but the World Championships are already looking out of reach.”

“For the first time in 10 years neither Mercedes made it through to Q3 qualifying [at Imola], which is hard to believe.“

“Clearly the car design is not working in several areas. To see Lewis Hamilton being lapped by Max Verstappen after 41 laps shows what a difficult time he and the team are having,” as reported by planetf1.

Mika Hakkinen has laid down the harsh reality for Mercedes in his recent interview. He said that championship can be over quickly if Mercedes doesn’t get on top of their porpoising issues.

Also Read: “He does the talking on the track,” Alex Albon believes it’s next to impossible to match the phenomenal standards of Max Verstappen