Former Formula 1 driver Timo Glock believes Mercedes has a big
“challenge” to get back to their championship-winning ways. The
team appeared to unlock more performance with the W14 at the US and
Mexico City Grands Prix during the recent triple-header, only for
its confidence to be shattered by a shocking performance in the Sao
Paulo Grand Prix weekend with a lack of straight-line speed and
high tyre wear holding Lewis Hamilton and George Russell back. Team
Principal Toto Wolff branded the race “inexcusable” for the team,
and felt its W14 car did not deserve a win after a season of
below-par performances. Speaking in an exclusive interview with
RacingNews365 , thanks to LuckyBlock.com, Glock believes it will be
hard for the team to get itself out of the struggle and back
fighting for championships, which it was doing as recently as 2021.
“That’s the worst case for the team, that you don’t understand why
you are sometimes quick and why you sometimes slow,” says Glock.
“It wasn’t really a bad weekend for them. Even in Mexico on Friday,
they struggled a bit to find the right direction and suddenly it
clicked, they made the right change, and the car was in the sweet
spot. “Then one week later they come to Brazil and nothing works
anymore. So that’s the worst case scenario that you don’t know at
the moment why you are quick and why you’re slow.” Glock: The
problem is obvious at Mercedes Out of the 91 race starts that Glock
made in his F1 career, 32 were with Toyota who were famed for being
an outfit that failed to reach its potential throughout the eight
years it spent in F1. Toyota showed promise at the start of the
2009 season, and Glock believes Mercedes must do something similar
if its wants to get back to the winning juggernaut it once was
between 2014 and 2021. “They need to find the direction and the
reason why things look good in simulation and wind tunnel, but not
in reality,” he continues. “If you look back to the past to the old
cars, that was the strength of Mercedes. They just put new parts on
the car and it worked. “With the new concept of the car from the
last few years, I think it’s pretty obvious there is a problem in
terms of correlation of simulation and wind tunnel to reality.” The
challenge for Mercedes Since the introduction of the budget cap in
F1, teams have been more selective in the types of updates they
bring to the circuit along with the testing phase. The goal is to
achieve as much lap time as possible, while still being efficient
and reducing costs. Could this be one of the downfalls of Mercedes
in the last couple of years? “That could be one part of it, but I
think at the end it worked in the past,” explains Glock. “Even if
you bring small parts, or you’re just limited in terms of running
time in the in the simulation or wind tunnel, I think it should
still be the case that you you find the gain in the wind tunnel and
it should work in reality. “This is not happening. I think it’s the
whole new concept of those new cars, which makes the problems at
the moment to understand what direction to go in.” Then Technical
Director and latterly Chief Technical Officer Mike Elliott recently
joined the list of senior members that have departed the team,
having been the person responsible for heading its design for the
W13 and first version of the W14 – with the zero sidepods – with
Glock sensing an opportunity. “Mercedes has been strong over so
many years, being what Red Bull is at the moment,” he says. “The
most challenging thing for a team is to keep a group together and
now they have a lot of change, that’s influencing the team, and the
performance of the team. “But everyone is facing that at the
moment. Even Red Bull is losing some guys, which could affect the
team. In the end, that’s the biggest challenge for Mercedes; to
regroup again and get the team in the right direction.” Mercedes
has been strong over so many years, being what Red Bull is at the
moment Timo Glock Glock pin points Russell problem over Hamilton
While it has had trouble off-track, both Lewis Hamilton and George
Russell have also had their fair share of moments on track that
have impacted the team this year. In Spain, they collided during
qualifying, and again at the start in Qatar, which forced Hamilton
to retire. Glock believes Russell has been the outlier in this, as
Hamilton utilises his extensive experience to extract the most from
the car. “George struggles a bit more with those new updates since
Austin and it seems like it’s favouring a bit more Lewis,” he adds.
“But on the other side, it was an unlucky season for George.
Everything which worked last year seems to not work this year, he
has sometimes been in the wrong position. “It seems like it’s a
guess what set up direction he needs to go in and Lewis was
experienced with speed on his side being a bit more experienced.
‘Maybe they are finding a better way to set up the car for Lewis
which doesn’t look like it’s working out on George’s side. “I think
there is no real sort of mental struggle from George, I think he
knows it still is quick and he shows that every time. It’s just a
matter of getting the car in the right direction of his liking.’
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