Source: REUTERS/Hamad I Mohammed
[Saba Sports News] Toto Wolff, team principal of the Mercedes team, found himself in unprecedented confusion after the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. While the Ferrari and Red Bull teams engaged in a peak showdown, the silver arrows lost their speed, and the W16 car suddenly seemed to lose its competitiveness like it had its power cut off in the race. This worst performance in the season left even Wolff, usually calm, admitting: “We couldn’t find the cause.” The Jeddah Corniche Circuit in Saudi Arabia should have been the turnaround spot for the Mercedes team. During qualifying, George Russell came close to securing pole position, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli also showed remarkable potential. However, after the start of the main race, the silver arrow cars encountered strange performance declines, with issues such as tire bubbles and overheating engines appearing one after another. Ultimately, Russell finished fifth, and rookie Antonelli dropped to sixth. What made the team even more despondent was that the technical team still could not find the source of the problem from the race data, as if someone had secretly reduced the engine power of the car. This defeat reveals the deep-seated crisis of the Mercedes team. Unlike Ferrari and Red Bull, which follow a stable upgrade path, the characteristics of the W16 car vary drastically from race to race. Internal sources reveal that the “design flaws” buried by the Mercedes team during preseason testing are gradually coming to light. As Wolff said: “When your problems are so inexplicable that even you can’t explain them, that’s when the nightmare truly begins.” With the European season approaching, Mercedes must quickly resolve the performance issues; otherwise, this eight-time world champion team risks being completely eliminated from the championship contention.