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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has admitted that his team has no chance of winning the 2022 F1 World Championship battle.
The eight-time constructors' champion has been a distant third in its fight against the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari this season and after nine races, the team is still trying to solve their issues regarding pace and porpoising.
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During an interview with German publication Speedweek in the build-up to the 2022 F1 British GP, Wolff was asked if Mercedes could still hope to contend for the championships. He said:
“No, that train left the station a long time ago.”
However, the Austrian felt that the gap between the Silver Arrows and its rivals had been bridged after Lewis Hamilton's P3 finish at the 2022 F1 Canadian GP. Wolff added:
“Montreal has always been a good place for Lewis [Hamilton], and he was really strong with a car that was not easy to master. We can be happy about that. Our pace in the race was good, especially when the tyres started to go off. We got even closer to Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz at that stage of the Grand Prix and that was nice to see. I think the fewer bumps there are on a track, the better it is for us.”
The seven-time world champion's teammate George Russell also maintained his record of finishing in the top five in every race this season after crossing the line in P4.
"Mercedes is a team that can make the steps" - Dutch racing driver backs Silver Arrows to return to fighting at the top of the grid
While Toto Wolff believes it might be too late for the team this year, Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel believes that Mercedes has what it takes to get into a fight with the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari for the world championship, provided it stops complaining and finds solutions to its problems.
After the FIA introduced a new set of technical directives following the 2022 F1 Azerbaijan GP, where Mercedes was once again vocal about porpoising, things reached a melting point in Montreal.
During the 2022 F1 Canadian GP weekend, Toto Wolff had a confrontation with Red Bull team principal Christian Horner in front of Netflix cameras that were filming for the next season of Drive To Survive.
Coronel feels that the German team is stronger than it appears to be and can find a way back to competing at the top if it gets its affairs in order. In an interview with motorsport.com, the Dutchman said:
“First the complaining starts. Mercedes is a team that can make the steps. They have the people, the smarts and the money. But they have opted for a certain philosophy with those narrow sidepods. They want to build on that. They taste potential, but it’s not there yet. I hope they come in. When two dogs fight over a bone, the third goes with it. Then we get more people racing at the front. Because a [George] Russell and a Lewis [Hamilton] should at least be able to fight for the championship.”
Heading into the 2022 F1 British GP weekend at Silverstone, Mercedes is in P3 in the World Constructors' Champoinship standings with 188 points.
