Are Mercedes's nerves now naked? "Small newspaper.at

The Silverstone Grand Prix showed some weaknesses at Mercedes. The superiority over the competition seems definitively gone. And in the executive suite, he becomes more and more agitated.

By Karin Sturm, Silverstone | 11:43, 09 July 2018

First lost the home game – and then also the nerves: how one to Mercedes on the unexpected defeat at the British GP at Silverstone against Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari answered, shows one thing in particular: Bei the silver ones increase the internal pressure. After four years of domination, the tough competition has to be feared once again – and managing it is not always sovereign.

A Lewis Hamilton of Kimi Raikkonen in the first Tour of the race returned by a Finn brake and once promoted to the end of the field, is even more likely to understand that at the beginning, just after the race, still emotionally charged, with his remark "interesting tactics that others" Ferrarri and Raikkonen have virtually imputed a deliberate launch. Especially because he then has more late, at the press conference and in front of the television cameras, at the clear question of knowing he suspected the intention of the incident, with a "number" equally clear. 19659011] The Viennese Schmäh

And that Niki Lauda marveled on the phone once, when he felt that his special protégé Hamilton was wronged, is not new. however, infects the boss of the Mercedes team Toto Wolff and gets only a few times, allegedly citing his technical director James Allison the phrase "be a complete incapacity to Ferrari and Raikkonen or the intention" Everyone can now make his own rhymes, bring them into the world, and with that the theories of conspiracy, it is unusual. Even though Wolff, directly addressed the statement, once again tried to back off, on Viennese nonsense and spoke, it had meant rather jokingly.

The fact is: Mercedes gets two weeks before the Stuttgarter's home race at Hockenheimring increasingly under pressure. There are indications that Ferrari is increasingly on the rise – and the Silver are struggling to resist. When Ferrari Chief Technology Officer explained to Mattia Binotto early in the season, "after a few races, when we have settled everything, our car is the one with the greatest development potential. If Lewis Hamilton had not taken advantage of the "free ride" even without the launch, especially after his poor start, which would have left him behind Vettel from the start, he would never have liked the "free ride" ride "

Yard" Starts "

The launches are anyway one of the construction sites where Mercedes is obviously late: In the last race since Canada, Hamilton and Bottas have on average always been less well off than Vettel and Raikkonen. "They have each started better with both cars than us, which has a technical background," says the engineers. The decisive parameters for Wolff: "Engine power, clutch, operability, operation by the driver."

Then there is the situation of the engine: all the data indicate that Ferrari is now equal in performance, maybe even slightly ahead. Even after the changes requested by the FIA ​​at Ferrari in terms of battery management. Although we still moan at Mercedes anyway, we have doubts, if everything is legal in the competition.

In terms of chbadis, Mercedes in Austria seems to have made an important step with the updates used for the first time, but now at Silverstone, Ferrari has followed suit with its new airplane, "and it worked very well from the beginning of the weekend ", confirms Sebastian Vettel, who drew a lot of hope of triumph for the future:" For us today extremely important because it is a track with which we have had problems in the past, which shows that our car is good everywhere this year. "