Priestley saw big day for Hamilton in Hungary: 'Re-stamp his authority'
14:20, 07 Aug 2022
5 Comments
Marc Priestley believes Mercedes still has a chance of winning second place in the Constructors' Championship this season. The team is only a few points away from Ferrari in the standings. Priestley sees opportunities for Mercedes because of their strong reliability.
Mercedes had a difficult start to 2022. While Red Bull Racing and Ferrari battled each other for victory, Mercedes often had to watch and hope for DNFs from the top two teams to finish on the podium. Although the performance at the start of the season was not top-notch, Mercedes had the reliability of the engine under control. Only one Mercedes car failed to cross the finish line in 2022, and that was due to a crash.
Ferrari is currently the least reliable car on the grid, which has allowed Mercedes to take advantage of the Italian's DNFs on several occasions. The team of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell are just 30 points away from second place in the championship. Former McLaren engineer Priestley believes Mercedes can push past the Italians for P2 in the standings at the end of the season. "If Mercedes can continue this form, there’s a possibility they could actually take second place in the Constructors’ Championship”, he says on the Chequered Flag podcast from the BBC.
'Hamilton confirmed his authority
The Hungarian Grand Prix was a successful weekend for Mercedes. Russell secured a surprising pole position on Saturday, while Hamilton managed to come back from P7 to P2 in the race. "I think it was quite an important day for Lewis Hamilton to sort of re-stamp his authority after all the hype that surrounded George Russell", Priestley continues.
"Of course, that’s great for the team, it’s great for George, but if you’re Lewis Hamilton, you just want to get your elbows out a little bit and say ‘hang on a minute, I’m still the man. I’m still here’", ends the Formula One expert.
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They seemed to have had pace in Silverstone and Austrian Circuit…even RBTP Christian Hohner said that Mercedes let Ferrari off the hook and should’ve won that race because the W 13 was the fastest car on the track but Mercedes went with the wrong Tires in the last stint of the race… so it definitely has pace it just wasn’t consistent .. My point is that superior teams like RB and Mercedes fine other ways to finish on the podium even when they don’t have the pace however with that being said as far as a flat out straight line being run from start to finish personally I think the Ferrari is faster than both the Merc and the RB..listen even in early season testing Lewis said that the W13 wasn’t going to be winning anything in the beginning of the season but the Ferrari was blazing faster than anything on the grid but them being able to put it all together to win a Championship would remain to be seen… I think Mr. Hamilton knows a thing or to on how to win championships..
If Mercedes had given both drivers the same pit stop strategy, Russell would have finished ahead of Hami.
Yeah right!!
How ? George didn’t have the same pace as Lewis in the last couple of races..now I will tip my hat of to him of putting the W13 on the pole because he really wasn’t the fastest in any of the sectors when he was on the QR..but nonetheless he put it in P1.. What George is starting to find out and see is Lewis’s race pace is off the charts when he gets in a groove and the car is working to his style of driving .
Yes, it's obvious, Mercedes will take P2 in the constructor's championship if Ferrari don't get their act together.