Mercedes F1 Finishes 5th And 7th At The Bahrain GP
Giancarlo Perlas March 3, 2024The 2024 Formula 1 season kicked off with yet another major win for Red Bull with a one-two finish. Despite displaying a promising showing during the start of the practices and a P3 advantage in the qualifying, Mercedes F1 finished the first race of the year in the 5th and 7th places.
Performance of Mercedes F1 in Bahrain
George Russell failed to optimize his P3 start as he fell to the 5th rank at the conclusion of the Bahrain Grand Prix. Meanwhile, the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who launched off from P9 managed to bag 7th. Mercedes-AMG Petronas blamed the underperformance of the drivers to overheating issues within both W15 race cars.
Early on, it appeared that Russell was set on a path to P2 as he went past Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc while Hamilton gunned for P8 as he chased Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. However, the problem eventually dampened team expectations as the Mercedes F1 drivers struggled to manage their overheating power units amid the “sub-optimal cooling configuration for the conditions.”
All Russell and Hamilton could do at that point was to ensure they scored in the race. Although Russell lost a lot of pace, Hamilton managed to improve his position on the way to the checkered flag for a 7th-place finish.
In the end, Mercedes F1 took a total of 16 points in Bahrain, thanks to Russell’s 10 points and Hamilton’s 6 points. The group hopes to fare better at the Saudi Arabia GP next week.
Toto Wolff Comments on Max Verstappen
For Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff, many mistakes were made in Bahrain. Besides the temperature problems in the W15, they had to contend with some perplexing issues on the tires. However, he gave credit where credit was due as he acknowledged the impressive showing of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“Max was in a different galaxy,” said Wolff in a post-race interview. “We need to look at ourselves, why we lost so much performance on the hard tire.”
