Mercedes F1 needs a show of strength | GRR
After seven years of unbridled domination of Formula 1, now is when we will see what Mercedes is made of. The almost gaunt look that was etched across the face of team principal Toto Wolff as he took his seat to conduct his post-Azerbaijan Grand Prix media conference told its own story before he had spoken a word.
The inquest that followed Mercedes' below-par performance in Monaco, where Lewis Hamilton was horribly off the pace and the pit crew was unable to remove a wheel from Valtteri Bottas' W12, was long and deep and led to Wolff remarking that he needed to stay on top of his emotions.
Fast forward two weeks and those emotions could be contained no longer as he described what had just unfolded around the streets of Baku as "painful", and that he and Hamilton felt "destroyed" by a simple error from the seven-time champion that had cost him at least 18 points.
Just 40 minutes prior to that mistake a potential 15-point deficit to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who was cruising to back-to-back wins for the first time in his F1 career, was dramatically erased due to a left-rear tyre failure that spat him venomously into a concrete wall.
In an instant, Hamilton was staring at the possibility of leaving the 'Land of Fire' with a likely 14-point lead if he could hold on to second place at the restart that followed a lengthy red-flag period.
Even before that moment, Hamilton had made clear over the team radio he would not be taking any risks in going head-to-head with new race leader Sergio Perez into the first corner when he declared the season as "a marathon and not a sprint", suggesting he was thinking of the long game rather than any instant glory in the Azeri capital.
But as with Verstappen, all it takes is one unfathomable moment, and that is exactly what transpired in the cockpit of Hamilton's car as he inadvertently flicked the 'magic button', a device that engages the brake balance override that is ordinarily used on formation laps to quickly generate heat into the front tyres
In effect, the balance had shifted too far forward to the front as he pulled away off the line and that is why he locked up into turn one at the restart before being forced to take to the escape road.
You can understand why he felt "destroyed", as mentioned by Wolff, as he trailed home 15th, only the second time in 162 races for Mercedes he had failed to score when taking the chequered flag.
With Valtteri Bottas finishing a dismal 12th, declaring himself "a sitting duck" as he lacked any pace to fend off those around him, Mercedes departed Azerbaijan without a point from a race for the first time in three years.
Worse still, taking the points tally of just seven from the last two races into consideration, it is the team's worst two-race haul of the Hamilton era, stretching back to the close of the 2012 campaign when Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were team-mates.
For Bottas, it is the first time since he joined Mercedes in 2017 he has failed to score points in two consecutive races.
These stats are not what we have come to expect of Mercedes, leading Wolff to declare this was now "the toughest" period of his time in charge of the team.
While there was no finger-pointing from Wolff at any individual or any specific department – that is not the Mercedes way – he did highlight, however, that something is fundamentally wrong inside the team at present.
"There are lots of things that are not running as smoothly as they have in the past few years," said Wolff. "Operationally it is not our A-game.
“There is just so much we need to improve that I just want to get on it right now in order to make sure that we are actually able to compete for this championship because we can’t continue losing points as we have done in Monaco and Baku.
"It’s just not acceptable for all of us.”
Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin echoed Wolff's sentiments by stating that over the last two races the team "haven't been good enough, not fast enough, we've made mistakes" and that at present it was "not at that level" to win championships.
Make no mistake, Mercedes is rattled, placed on the backfoot by a Red Bull team that for once has started a season strongly rather than being slow out of the blocks and unable to find its feet until the midway point of a campaign.
In this record-breaking 23-race season – yes, we may have lost Singapore recently but another event will be added – Red Bull team principal Christian Horner is naturally cautious.
"It's swings and roundabouts isn't it," said Horner. "Max could have come out of the weekend putting 10 points onto his championship lead, 10 or 11 with the fastest lap if he'd finished where he was with five to go, so he could have been 15 up [in total].
"He's still four up but at one point he was also looking like he could be 21 down if Lewis had nicked the victory.
"So it's swings and roundabouts, and it's going to do this throughout the championship while the performance is so close, which makes it so exciting to be part of. It motivates everybody in the team to a whole new energy level.
"We've just got to grab our opportunities when they present themselves."
Mercedes has appreciably been 'weak' at street tracks over the years, albeit over the last two race weekends they were at a level not previously seen.
The expectation is Mercedes will return to the form that saw Hamilton claim his largest points tally from the opening four races of a season when F1 pitches up at more 'normal' venues such as France, which is next on the calendar.
"We knew that these two race tracks [Monaco and Baku] were probably the worst for us," said Wolff. "I hope I am right with that assessment and let’s see how the European races go now."
Horner recently remarked that Wolff had "had it far too easy for the last seven years", and that it was “good for him to have some competition".
After those seven comfortable years, it is time for Wolff, Hamilton, Bottas, Shovlin et al to stand up and be counted.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.