We are the best
The post-race of the Belgian GP revolved entirely around Mercedes, the issue of the power of the Brixworth engine but also its reliability. The strength of the British power unit allowed Andrea Kimi Antonelli to prevail in the ‘direct clash’ with Charles Leclerc for the victory, but also on the dock are the problems that the silver arrows’ engine has and which George Russell has been continuously complaining about. The Englishman, forced to retire after a contact with Lewis Hamilton during the first lap, also complained today about a lack of power on the Kemmel straight, right after the start. This problem caused him to be ‘sucked in’ by the group and effectively triggered the race dynamics that then led to the accident with his former teammate.
Read more Ferrari is eager for Budapest, Vasseur firefighter: “On paper a better track, but…”
In front of the cameras of Sky UK and Sky Italy, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff claimed the power of the power unit made by his team and responded rather proudly to the criticisms regarding the reliability of these power units. Wolff’s comment seemed in fact a not-so-subtle jab at the other teams and Ferrari in particular, which certainly cannot count on an engine as effective as that of the team currently leading the world championship standings.
Better unreliable than slow, but how many points lost
“We had a problem on all Mercedes engines: we lacked power on the straights. This heavily penalized us – Wolff said referring to Russell – and it’s 100% our fault. We are doing our best as a team. We have the most powerful power unit, a strong car capable of winning. Everyone is giving their best to minimize errors, yet they continue to happen because we are human beings. We disappointed Kimi at Silverstone, where George got on the podium, which was perhaps a better result than expected. Then we had a retirement in Montreal and another in Barcelona. This partly sums up our season. It’s a technical sport, a mechanical sport.”
Read more Hamilton: “I can’t afford more weekends like this. I need to increase my focus”
But then Wolff counterattacked: “We have presented a product [powertrain] that is really powerful and I prefer to solve reliability problems rather than try to speed up a slow engine or a slow car. We are giving 100% and we must continue to do so because we have lost many points due to reliability problems. We should be much further ahead than we are,” he concluded.
