Mercedes Post-Race Comments 2022 Spanish F1 GP
Heroic drives from George and Lewis see the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team take P3 and P5 in Barcelona. George secured his second podium of the season with an imperious drive, making up places at the start and then holding off VER with an emphatic defence for several laps, at one point leading the Grand Prix, before settling in to take P3.
Lewis suffered a puncture on the opening lap after coming together with the Haas of Kevin Magnusen, finding himself 50 secs off the lead before putting his head down and completing a remarkable recovery drive up to P5, matching the leaders for race pace.
Lewis's result could have been even better but for a water leak affecting both cars in the closing laps forced him to yield P4 to SAI, with George having a sizeable margin to the cars behind to manage the issue.
George took the team's third podium of the season, following his P3 in Australia and Lewis's P3 in the opening race of the season in Bahrain. Today's podium is the 250th for the modern-day Mercedes F1 Team.
Driver | Grid | Result | Fastest Lap | |
George Russell | P4 | P3 | 1:24.636 | |
Lewis Hamilton | P6 | P5 | 1:24.253 |
Strategy | Start | Stop 1 | Stop 2 | Stop 3 |
No.63 | Soft | Medium (13) | Medium (36) | Soft (51) |
No.44 | Medium | Soft (1) | Medium (22) | Soft (48) |
George Russell said
Today was super tough! I'm just so proud to be standing here on the podium and bring it home for the team. The guys have worked so hard, so this result is for everyone back in Brackley and Brixworth who've worked tirelessly, thank you! I gave it everything I could to hold Max off, they were some enjoyable laps! With the Red Bulls in my mirrors, I was trying to get absolutely everything out of the car to keep them behind. It was very difficult last few laps, a real survival race when we knew we had the gap to manage. Thanks to all the fans out here in Barcelona - they've been amazing all weekend! The support for Formula 1 at the moment is in a great place, so it's great to be here.
Lewis Hamilton said
I'm just really grateful that I was able to come back and grateful to the team for keeping their head down and for all the amazing work to get us to this improvement. The car felt great in the race, our pace is closer to the top guys which is amazing. I was just really unfortunate at the start to get the puncture but I didn't give up - that's what we do, right? It's a lot hotter than predicted today and for everyone it's quite tough with these cars. I had to basically drive at half throttle at the end to try and cool the car, with lots of lifting down the straight just to get fresh air into the engine to cool it down. I was so gutted to lose the place to Sainz, especially after coming from where I came from. I mean, I was 30+ seconds behind last place - that's like no man's land. It's a horrible feeling being that far behind, but you just have to keep your head up, keep pushing, keep going and hoping for better. We do still have bouncing but not in the straight line, it's through corners but no way near as bad as we had before. The guys are working really hard and I am sure we can fix that over time. If I didn't have that issue at the beginning, who knows where we'd have been at the end. It's good to know we have similar pace to some of the front runners.
Toto Wolff said:
It was a very pleasing weekend with lots of positive signs, even though I'm not yet ecstatic. We had a solid race to beat Ferrari, and with Lewis we had probably the fastest race car of all today. We need to just unpick this now, analyse the data, and try to improve step-by-step for a race win. George put up a spectacular defence to Max, the way he positioned the car was spot-on, the kind of racing we love to see and he managed the car well at the end to bring home another podium. For Lewis, misfortune on the opening lap but what a recovery drive from then on, fantastic. As a driver, its always difficult when you are 50 seconds down but we never give up, and his pace at the end was stunning, he could have raced for the win. The weekend was better than expected because I am always pessimistic about things. We've moved clear from the midfield, at least in Barcelona, and caught up half a second to the front runners - we were a second off and now it's half a second. We unlocked the potential of the car by tweaking things on the stops and so today was the most valuable race for us to compare the two cars, across setups and tyres. Our understanding took a big step forward and there's definitely more to come.
Andrew Shovlin said:
There are positives to take from the weekend, not least a fine drive to the podium for George with some brilliant defending against the Red Bulls. Lewis didn't have any luck, Magnussen's move on lap 1 caused a puncture that left him nearly a minute behind the leaders and with a mountain to climb just to make the points. He drove brilliantly and out-performed our expectations to make it back to fourth only for a water leak to force him to concede the place to Sainz in order to make sure we finished. The most encouraging thing is the improvement in pace that we have seen this weekend; a lot of hard work has gone into understanding the issues and bringing parts to the track for this race. We can now see a route to develop our way out of this and back into a position where we can fight for pole and wins. We've got some unusual tracks coming up, starting with Monaco where we need to focus more on low-speed performance but we've got some parts in the pipeline that can hopefully help in that regard. After some tough months in Brackley and Brixworth, it was great to feel like we were racing again, we're determined to be part of the battle for these championships and today has given us belief that we can do just that.
✅ Check out more posts with related topics:
When Lewis lost 50 secs after his tire puncture, he wanted to park his car and quit. His engineer had to bolster his ego to keep him going. It definitely time for LH to retire. This man is 37 years old, not 7.
DOTD too, as voted for by the Hamfans
As a driver, its always difficult when you are 50 seconds down but we never give
That's funny Toto, your driver wanted to park the car lol
Russell showing his class and Mercedes are now less than a second a lap behind, give him a car as good as the RB and he'll beat MV.
He might but exchamp Lewis wont f2 or is that to racist for you?
Sir Lulu I'm afraid has got lazy & lost he has got to fight harder and its not easy for him he's just not used to being in that position at the start hence the collision with K. MAG giving him a good excuse to give up, "I think shuey did that in his later days at mb and the thought of GR being up at the sharp end is just to much for the old fella, though he did well coming through the pack he had left it to LATE story of his life at the moment. 😎
LH has started from the pit lane in the past and succeeded,so 50 secs should not have been a problem for him. His wanting to park the car after the first lap, was a bit of an embarrassment for the G.O.A.T. Maybe time to stop listening to your rave reviews from his adoring fans and start reevaluating his plans for the present and future.Toto sounded more like a reassuring parent than a team principle.
Certain things will always stick to Lewis, maybe its because im black, the slums of stevenage, this race was manipulated, retire the car guys..skirts, noserings.Reputation tarnished forever , but heh lets go racing....who cares...!!
Just saw a recent photo of Sir Lewis the younger, about 12-13 y.o. He was donning a tuxedo in the picture. I don’t where he grew up ( maybe the slums of turn of the century old Londontown, I don’t know) this could be a stretch maybe, but generally kids living in the slums and or working-class neighborhoods, anywhere, don’t wear tuxedoes. Maybe where he lived was different? His father had a respectable job. Lewis went school. Is it different in England? In the States, kids who are poor or who are from working families don’t have tuxes or parents with decent jobs. Black or white btw.
Trust me Susan all the carp about Hamilton snr having to have 4 jobs to make lalas
dream come true great story eh , OR maybe they were 4 part time jobs because he couldn't get one full time job , depends how you spin things but THEY weren't as poor as has been made out that's for sure..!!!
Why, if someone comments about someone, who happens to be black, is always construed as racist? It couldn’t be because that is always his fall back excuse for everything. I dislike LH for specific reasons about his attitude and behavior, not for the color of his skin, even though he’s mixed race. It appears he has thrown his white mother under the bus and never acknowledges her contribution to his gene pool. But that is okay, being white these days has no advantages in any occupation. Lewis needs to lose his attitude, his political agendas, entitlement persona or retire. I would feel the same way about anyone with these shortcomings. Felt this way about Rosberg.
Dont know what's happened to are comments team, maybe on holiday if they are then enjoy you deserve it, if not and your ill🤒, get well soon we miss you.
Leopold ...!!
its ctrl+alt+delete Susan, there default standard fallback setting re
1st 3 lines of your post
I did try and reply directly but unable to, but , seems to have a glitch somewhere, I think ill park it and save the engine guys hehe
I guess I understood your comment. It seems to be fixed now.
bit of British humour Leopold, sorry about that , yes all fixed now thanks
??? Not sure if I understand your comment. But I'll check some options.
✅ Checkout the latest 50 F1 Fans comments.