Mercedes, the red alert is double: in addition to Ferrari, there’s also reliability anxiety

Toto Wolff raises the level of attention

“We cannot compete for the world championship if every 2 races a car loses valuable points. To finish first, you must first finish“, thus Toto Wolff – Mercedes team principal and co-owner had stated to Sky Sports Uk a few minutes after the checkered flag of the Barcelona race.

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Of course, Mercedes has won 6 of the 7 races held so far, but Wolff certainly doesn’t want to let his guard down, and what was seen at Montmelò was enough to glimpse potential risks for the dominance of the Silver Arrows. Indeed, it’s not just the return of Ferrari that worries the championship leaders.

Mercedes, there’s a battery problem

The anxiety related to reliability is causing more than a headache at Mercedes. George Russell in Montreal, Andrea Kimi Antonelli in Barcelona: battery that suddenly becomes a flat line, showing no more signs of life. The Bolognese explained: “We’ve had several problems since the beginning of the year, it’s a bit worrying. This is an aspect we need to work on, because losing so many points hurts.”

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Toto Wolff is well aware that the team needs to improve quickly: “Reliability is what we need to focus on, it is the number one priority. Nobody is happy about this, we will do everything possible to understand. We don’t yet know the cause of the failure, most of the past ones were battery-related, but they were different failures. The symptom was similar to Montreal, and the car simply shut down.”
As is known, battery problems have also affected the Mercedes-powered McLaren, with two retirements in China and one in Monaco.
The alarm bell has rung and is ringing ever more insistently, with the possibility of an ADUO intervention for Mercedes becoming increasingly concrete…

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