“This championship could easily develop into a three-way fight,” Mika Hakkinen refuses to rule out Mercedes’ chances in 2022

“This championship could easily develop into a three-way fight,” Mika Hakkinen refuses to rule out Mercedes’ chances in 2022

Mercedes

All the Mercedes fans have been witness to the eight-time Constructors’ Championship winning team’s fall from grace in the first three races of the 2022 season. Ever since the FIA announced some rule changes for the new Formula 1 season, Mercedes, who dominated the turbo-hybrid era, could not find their way around problems such as porpoising.

To add to the woes of Mercedes, their car was not fast enough to compete with the likes of Ferrari’s SF-75, which seems to have no flaws at all, and Red Bull’s RB-18, which is pretty fast on the track, but has got some reliability issues. Even though Mercedes has got two highly talented Britons driving to the best of their abilities, the car just has not got enough Qualifying speed for them to get into the top 3 spots in the Qualifiers like Mercedes did in the previous seasons.

Despite all the issues with the car, Lewis Hamilton has clinched P3 in the opening race of the year in Bahrain and George Russell wowed his fans by scoring his first podium for the team in Australia. Former World Champion Mikka Hakkinen is appreciative of how the two Merc drivers are making the best out of their opportunities and scoring podiums despite the problems with their cars. He also said he reckons the fight for the F1 World Championship 2022 would be a three-way-affair as Mercedes will soon join Red Bull and Ferrari in it.

“The championship could easily develop into a three-way fight” : Mikka Hakkinen believes Mercedes can still aim for the F1 2022 Championship

Mercedes at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix
Mercedes at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix

Mercedes is regarded as one of the most successful teams on the track with their record-breaking eight consecutive Constructors’ Championship wins. But, with the arrival of the new regulations, Toto Wolff’s team seems to struggle a bit as their W13 cannot get over problems like porpoising.

But even amidst technical difficulties, the team has made the best out of Red Bull’s retirements by staying steady and that has given them two podiums in the last three races. In Australia last week, the retirement of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz helped George Russell immensely as he went for the P3 position. With his podium win, Mercedes went up to P2 in the Constructors’ Championship table, just one point above Red Bull.

When writing about Mercedes’ performance up until now, former World Champion Mikka Hakkinen mentioned about Russell, “George drove a really strong race and that third place was very important.“

Hakkinen further added, “Lewis and George are both doing a fantastic job for Mercedes while the team sorts out its performance problems, and that is another reason Red Bull need to fix their reliability issues.

“This championship could easily develop into a three-way fight between these teams and Ferrari.“

Will Hakkinen’s premonitions turn to be true or will Mercedes fall back as Red Bull picks themselves up and improves their reliability issues in the next race at Imola? All remains to be seen at the Emiglia Romania Grand Prix about a week from now.

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