F1 News
Debate | Even without porpoising, Mercedes lack serious speed
- GPblog.com
For the first five races of this season we saw Red Bull Racing and Ferrari continuously fighting for victory. Mercedes, on the other hand, with George Russell, often had to watch from P5 as they drove in no man's land. Lewis Hamilton had an even more difficult time in the opening stages of this season, including in Jeddah. This was then largely due to porpoising problems for the German team.
But with updates in Miami and the track characteristics, they seemed to struggle with this less. As a result, the expectation in the paddock was that this weekend in Miami they could finally challenge Ferrari and Red Bull in the battle for victory. Until qualifying, those hopes were there, but once Q1 started it became clear that Mercedes really lacks speed.
Russell crashed out in Q2, behind Fernando Alonso in P12. Hamilton did manage to reach Q3, but was beaten by former teammate Valtteri Bottas, who managed to go one and a half tenths faster on the circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium with his Alfa Romeo. Gap to top teams painfully obvious
The difference between Charles Leclerc on pole and Hamilton in P6 was ultimately more than eight tenths. Mercedes will be happy that they finally solved the porpoising problems, but it still became clear that Mercedes simply lacks speed this season. Even with updates and solutions to their problems, they will be the third team this season and have to hope for problems at Red Bull and Ferrari to get podium spots in 2022.