"We're not the fastest pit stops at the moment"- Mercedes prioritizing 'consistency over speed' in 2022 F1 season

Mercedes' trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has confirmed that the Silver Arrows are prioritizing 'consistency over speed' when it comes to pit stops in the 2022 F1 season.

The new regulations introduced by the FIA at the start of the year have made the cars heavier than ever before. The tires have also grown exponentially from 13 inches to 18 inches, adding to the weight factor. This has had a direct impact on pit-stop timings in the sport.

Into the 12th race weekend of the campaign and no team has been able to crack the two-second threshold for pit stops. The fastest pit stop under the new regulations was delivered by Ferrari during the 2022 F1 Spanish GP when the Scuderia clocked in with an impressive 2.23 second stop. In comparison, Mercedes' fastest stop came at the inaugural 2022 F1 Miami GP, with the stopwatch reading 2.69 seconds.

Despite being slower on average when compared to their main rivals Ferrari and Red Bull, Mercedes are unperturbed by this statistic.

Speaking at a press conference at Le Castellet (Circuit Paul Ricard) ahead of the race, Andrew Shovlin said:

“Well, we prioritise consistency over speed. We’re not the fastest pit stops at the moment, and we haven’t been consistent enough recently. One of the challenges we’ve actually faced has just been the working time within these regulations. It means that getting the cars together is a priority.”

The Briton went on to add, saying:

“Until this weekend, we couldn’t fire up even until four o’clock on a Thursday and you’ve also got to do the scanning. And one of the big issues was actually getting all of that work into the weekend and one of the first things to drop is pitstop practice. So it’s an area that we’re working on. It’s not the thing that’s holding us back at the moment - that’s the car - but it’s always a parallel project. But yeah, of course, the weight of the wheels, they are very heavy now, they’re cumbersome and that inevitably has caused every team to slow down a bit.”

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Mercedes moving in the right direction with car development in 2022, feels George Russell

George Russell believes Mercedes has a clear direction regarding its car development and is trending towards it ahead of the 2022 F1 French GP.

The Silver Arrows team was slow off the blocks at the start of 2022 when compared to the likes of Red Bull and Ferrari and has been playing catch-up in 11 races thus far.

All the while, its team of engineers back in Brackley and Brixworth has been working non-stop to solve issues related to porpoising and ride height while trying to unlock the true potential of the W13 that George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are driving this year.

George Russell feels Mercedes can focus on extracting more performance from its package now that it doesn't have to experiment as much with its setup.

Speaking in an interview ahead of the 2022 F1 French GP, the 24-year-old said:

“I feel like, as a team, this is probably the first in the recent races that we’ve really got on top of the car and what we believe we need to do to bring more performance. Whereas if we look back at the first six races of the season, it was almost trial and error.”

The Silver Arrows, however, still have plenty of work to be done before they can mount a genuine challenge at the top of the grid. Heading into the 2022 F1 French GP, Mercedes are yet to secure a starting position higher than P4 and a finish higher than P3.