Having limped to a third-place finish in last season’s constructors’ championship, Mercedes were tipped to be back with a bang this season.
The W13 struggled with a major porpoising problem and a general lack of performance, leading the Silver Arrows to only one race win over the course of the season.
Strangely, the team decided to stick with the same design concept this year, turning up to Bahrain’s pre-season testing with the zero sidepod design that led them to so many issues last year.
Even after Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc retired from the season opener in Bahrain, Mercedes were only able to finish in P5 and P7, suggesting that something needs to change.
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Lewis Hamilton has stunningly claimed that Mercedes did not listen to his advice last season and with team principal Toto Wolff now admitting that his team made a mistake with their concept, the mood in the Mercedes camp is tense.
With snappy comments and various mistakes surrounding Mercedes already this season, F1 journalist Peter Windsor has tipped the team for civil war.
“You do wonder how much these kind of snappy comments in the press are related to what the engineers are doing,” he said on his YouTube channel.
“James Allison and everyone else back at Brackley trying to decide what to do to get this car to be competitive.
“And you have to guess, given their success over the past decade, that they know how to do that. So there’s almost like a civil war going on.”
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The rumours surrounding Mercedes’ issues is not helped by Lewis Hamilton’s contract situation, with the Brit still yet to put pen to paper that would see him stay with the Silver Arrows next season.
It has been rumoured that the seven-time world champion could make a move to Ferrari next year, should Mercedes not be able to deliver him a title winning car.
Whilst the Brit has said that he will be at Mercedes next season no matter what, Hamilton could be forced to re-think his future if he truly dreams of winning a record breaking eighth world championship title before he retires.