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Mercedes make Lewis Hamilton vow after sobering Bahrain qualifying result
Tom Cary, Senior Sports Correspondent, in Sakhir
Toto Wolff finally admitted Mercedes got their car concept wrong last year and that they will now need a complete “change of direction” if they want to get back to winning world titles.
In what was a stunning admission after George Russell and Lewis Hamilton could only qualify sixth and seventh fastest respectively for Sunday’s season-opening grand prix in Bahrain, six-tenths behind the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, the Mercedes team principal admitted he no longer believed this current Mercedes package could ever be competitive enough to mount a challenge.
Wolff refused to concede defeat, however, even this season, calling for calm heads. And he vowed that Mercedes would get there and win Hamilton another world title before he retired. “We’re going to get Lewis to his eighth world title,” Wolff said. “Even if I have to push him around the track to help get him his eighth.”
It was a nice line. But this was another sobering day for the Brackley team in what has been a year full of them. Perhaps the most sobering yet. After Russell’s win in Brazil last autumn, and all those hopes over the winter that they might have closed the gap to Red Bull, the insistence that their concept was not the issue and that the philosophy retained huge untapped potential, ultimately, when it came down to it, they just were not quick enough.
Mercedes were not a million miles away. Their 0.6sec deficit in qualifying at the opening race this year was the same as last year. But with both Ferraris also ahead of them, as well as the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso, it was enough for Wolff to call for a rethink.
Mercedes raised eyebrows when they launched the W13, the first car in a brand new set of regulations, this time 12 months ago. The look of the car, with its almost non-existent sidepods, was completely unlike anything else on the grid. But despite the car’s disappointing displays, the team always insisted the fundamental concept was not the issue. They argued that the porpoising – or bouncing – problems they encountered, particularly in the early part of last season, had prevented their engineers from focusing on pure performance.
When Mercedes launched the W14 earlier this month, still with the same overall philosophy, they were accused in some quarters of ‘engineering pride’ or stubbornness. Once again they insisted that their calculations suggested the concept was their best chance of unlocking the full potential of the car. Last night Wolff finally held his hands up.
“I don’t think that this package is going to be competitive eventually,” he said after Red Bull locked out the front row, ending any hopes of a fairytale pole for 41-year-old Fernando Alonso, who had topped the final two practice sessions in his Aston Martin but could only go fifth quickest. “We gave it our best go, also over the winter, and now we all just need to regroup, sit down with the engineers, be totally non-dogmatic, and ask ‘what is the development direction we want to pursue in order to be able to win races?’”
Wolff’s admission brought the curtain down on a qualifying session which promised much, but ultimately did not quite deliver. The gaps between the cars were very small, and the order fluctuated in the first two sessions. But ultimately Red Bull proved too good, locking out the front row without being at their best, with a setup which both Verstappen and Perez admitted was geared “more towards the race”.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc – who finished just 0.103secs behind Verstappen – did say that he felt he might have taken pole, but Ferrari chose not to do a second run to enable them to start Sunday’s race on new tyres rather than used ones.
Further back, McLaren’s difficult start to the year continued with Lando Norris 11th and rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri knocked out in the first session and down in 18th.
Hamilton tried to put a brave face on his seventh place in the mixed zone afterwards. “It is not an impossible mountain to climb,” he said. But ultimately his team principal agreed with the assessment he gave after practice on Friday, when he concluded the car’s concept was always going to hold them back.
Wolff dismissed suggestions that any heads would roll. “At this team we play the problem not the person,” he said. “I have responsibilities. I need to fire myself if I want to do something [radical].
“No, we have all the ingredients to be successful. We got it wrong last year. We thought we could fix it by sticking to the concept of car. But it didn’t work out. So we just need to switch our focus onto what we believe is the right direction.”
Asked how long that might take and whether they could still challenge for the title this year, Wolff was circumspect.
“You know, motor racing is crazy,” he concluded. “I don’t know what is going to happen this year. We may find a silver bullet next week and gain five tenths. I haven’t seen any silver bullets before. But you never know.
“If you look at the pecking order today, you say ‘It’s not realistic’. But I’m looking at what we can find next week, what we can add to the car, what is the change of direction that we can implement and how quickly can we do that.
“Maybe we can turn the ship around this year. But it needs a lot to change the pecking order.”
Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying, classification
- Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1min 29.708secs
- Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:29.846
- Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:30.000
- Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:30.154
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1:30.336
- George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:30.340
- Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:30.384
- Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:30.836
- Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:30.984
- Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) MoneyGram Haas F1 1:30.809
- Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:31.381
- Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1:31.443
- Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1:31.473
- Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:32.510
- Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:31.461
- Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:31.652
- Kevin Magnussen (Den) MoneyGram Haas F1 1:31.892
- Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:32.101
- Nyck de Vries (Ned) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:32.121
- Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:32.181
Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying, as it happened
Lewis Hamilton speaks after his seventh position
"I went in with a really open mind, I woke up this morning thinking we were going to be a lot further behind. A lot of great work went overnight. We made a step forward today, the car was feeling much more alive this morning. When we got to qualifying the car just didn't feel alive, it felt average.
"The direction I am going in with my set-up I am hoping it works more for tomorrow. It's not an impossible mountain to climb. We can definitely close that gap, we just need to push like never before."
Toto Wolff speaks to Sky Sports F1
"Well, the gap is not ridiculous considering we only run one tyre at the end but it's not where we want to be. It's maybe around four tenths but these are all irrelevant calculations, but that is the gap. This is what we need to find if we need to win. They both didn't have clean laps, there was maybe a tenth in a half there."
He says that they maybe could have overtaken Alonso had they done better laps.
On Hamilton's search for an eighth drivers' title and the driver's talk about their team's concept on the car:
"He's absolutely in the same choir. We are super critical within our team. We just need to get our act together. We are going to get his eighth, he has compared to Alonso another four years in him. Even if I need to push him around the track to win the eighth we're going to do everything [needed]."
Max Verstappen reacts to his pole position
"It's been a bit of a tough start to the weekend yesterday and today not really finding my rhythm. Having such a strong car with Checo up there as well, it's amazing and I am looking forward to tomorrow. I think compared to last year everyone knows a bit more with what they are doing.
"The changes slowed down the car a bit but of course we are still going faster. I was actually positively surprised being on pole after the struggles I had in practice. Normally our race car is better, so let's see."
Sergio Perez reacts
"It has been really tight qualifying. I don't remember such a tight qualifying battle... it's really marginal. You cannot leave anything on the table. In the end I wasn't totally comfortable with the balance but to get this start for the team is really special.
"If anything we prepared much more to do the race, we have more of a Sunday race car underneath us at the moment."
Leclerc reacts to his third place
"There wasn't any issue. I think we were in the fight for pole which was a good surprise because I did not expect that after testing. We need to keep in our mind that in our race run we seem to be on the back foot compared to Red Bull.
"I hope it will also be like that on the race runs. Aston Martin was really quick, Mercedes was very quick in some parts. We are faster than we thought. In the race runs we seem to have a bit of weakness for now. Having a new tyre will help us."
Q3 classification
- VER 1:29.708
- PER +0.138
- LEC +0.292
- SAI +0.446
- ALO +0.628
- RUS +0.632
- HAM +0.676
- STR +1.128
- OCO +1.276
- HUL (NO TIME)
Red Bull found (or had all along...) the lap time when they needed it. A creditable effort from Leclerc but he only did one run, so would suggest that he could have split the Red Bulls. Decent effort from Perez. The Aston Martin is quick, but not quite quick enough to get onto the front two rows, then.
MAX VERSTAPPEN TAKES POLE POSITION FOR THE 2023 BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX!
Sainz can't find the time he needs on his lap, nowhere near it, really. 0.446s the gap between Verstappen in first and Sainz in fourth.
Perez second, Leclerc third. All Ferrari second row. Alonso the best of the rest ahead of the two Mercedes cars.
Q1 - Norris improves but only to 13th
That is unlikely to be good enough. It could be tight, though. Piastri in 19th, but can he improve that? Only to 17th... Ouch. He's out.
Hulkenberg improves from 19th to sixth, that's good. He'll be through but that puts Gasly into the drop zone. Sargeant with a fairly handy lap, but it's only 16th. It's the exact time of Norris in 15th but Norris set the lap first so Sargeant is 16th.
Gasly out, Magnussen out.
Q1 - Tsunoda posts the fastest lap time so far
0.717s ahead of team-mate Nyck de Vries. Carlos Sainz cannot beat Tsunoda's time, but he is on the slower tyre, the gap nearly three tenths, though. Not really that encouraging.
A second piece fell off the front wing of Leclerc at turn one, too. Ah, no, it was a piece of the wheelbrow. You can see on the footage, it's the bit of the bottom.
Where and when will the six sprint races be this year?
Formula One announced the six sprint venues for 2023: Azerbaijan, Belgium, the Austin race in the United States and Qatar all joining Austria and Brazil in staging qualifying on Friday and a shortened ‘sprint' race on Saturday.
Three sprint races were held in 2022 – at Imola, Austria and Brazil – with much discussion in the early part of the season about expanding that offering for next year.
The teams and F1 were keen to double the number, arguing that sprint races have been successful in engaging fans and increasing audience sizes. But the FIA, motorsport’s world governing body, initially resisted, claiming that it would cost them more and asking for compensation.
Like last year, too, points will be given to the top eight drivers in the sprint race. Again, the sprint races will be approximately 100km – or roughly a third of a grand prix distance – and will run on Saturday, with the traditional three-part qualifying setting the grid for the sprint and taking place on the Friday.
The driver who tops qualifying on Friday, when these sprint races take place, will be awarded the official pole position, not the winner of the sprint, as was the case in 2021.
There is always a trial of a new qualifying format. For two rounds this season, the tyre compound type in each part of qualifying will mandated by the FIA.
Here is what Alonso said after topping FP2 yesterday
"It's another step into the right direction, the car still feels good. We need to wait and see. And the moment there is not much focus on times, we need to improve some things on the car. It's going to be a very interesting process but I think the team is learning every day.
"Let's see what happens in the first couple of races, at the moment it's only good test sessions. At the moment I think Lawrence has this vision on everything he does. We are in a very interesting process with a new car, new technical department. I think it's still a long way to go."
For the good of F1, someone has to challenge Max Verstappen this season
Between 2000 and 2004, Michael Schumacher hoovered up five world titles and 48 race wins in a period of Ferrari dominance which did huge damage to Formula One.
Schumacher was undoubtedly a brilliant driver. He was ruthless, yes. And that desire to win at all costs saw him cross the line on occasion, committing indiscretions for which many fans mark him down in their list of all-time greats. But there is no doubt the German set the standard, on and off the track.
Schumacher’s greatness was not the issue. His utter domination of Formula One was. It almost destroyed the sport. Racing in the Schumacher era became predictable, television ratings plummeted, the later rounds of the championship were hardly worth watching.
For Schumacher then, read Max Verstappen now.
How the grid lines up this season
Red Bull: Max Verstappen (1) and Sergio Pérez (11)
Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton (44) and George Russell (63)
Ferrari: Carlos Sainz (55) and Charles Leclerc (55)
Alpine: Esteban Ocon (31) and Pierre Gasly (10)
McLaren: Lando Norris (4) and Oscar Piastri (81)
Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas (77) and Guanyu Zhou (24)
Aston Martin: Lance Stroll (18) and Fernando Alonso (14)
Haas: Kevin Magnussen (20) and Nico Hulkenberg (27)
AlphaTauri: Yuki Tsunoda (22) and Nyck de Vries (21)
Williams: Alexander Albon (23) and Logan Sargeant (2)
Wonder if we'll get to the end of the season with it still like this... it is never guaranteed.
A reminder that Aston Martin finished last season in seventh
That does not really tell the full story of their progress throughout the year, though, which was impressive. For them to lead the midfield this year will be (or would have been) another impressive step of progress. But competing with the big three, even occasionally, is an enormous step.
Let us not get too carried away yet, though. We've been in similar situations before, only for one team to put it on pole by half a second.
Times after third and final practice
- Fernando Alonso (Spa) Aston Martin 1min 32.340secs
- Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:32.345
- Sergio Perez (Mex) Red Bull 1:32.446
- Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:32.555
- Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1:32.624
- George Russell (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1:32.731
- Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:32.919
- Carlos Sainz Jr. (Spa) Ferrari 1:32.945
- Oscar Piastri (Aus) McLaren 1:33.045
- Pierre Gasly (Fra) Alpine 1:33.064
- Esteban Ocon (Fra) Alpine 1:33.116
- Guanyu Zhou (Chn) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1:33.180
- Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:33.202
- Kevin Magnussen (Den) MoneyGram Haas F1 1:33.381
- Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) MoneyGram Haas F1 1:33.423
- Yuki Tsunoda (Jpn) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:33.475
- Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake 1:33.629
- Logan Sargeant (USA) Williams 1:33.665
- Alexander Albon (Tha) Williams 1:33.882
- Nyck de Vries (Ned) Scuderia AlphaTauri 1:34.082
Good afternoon F1 fans
And welcome to our coverage for qualifying for the season-opening 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix. We've had three practice sessions so far, in differing conditions. The results, so far, have been interesting to say the least.
Heading into the season, naturally the expectation was that Red Bull would walk it. That may well be the case. Practice is better than testing, but qualifying is the real test when all the kidology ends and the lap times tell the whole story.
No doubt the biggest surprise has been the pace of Aston Martin, all weekend. Yes, they looked handy in testing and there was some talk of them being able to break through into the top three – Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes – but the extent of their pace has been surprising.
Fernando Alonso, who joined the team from Alpine for this season, topped yesterday's second practice under lights and was fastest again in morning practice, just 0.005sec ahead of the defending champion, the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.
Of course, it would still be a shock (even after all this) if Alonso were to put the AMR23 on pole for tomorrow's race, but you have to say that Red Bull do not look quite so bulletproof as they did heading into the weekend. There is always the chance of the team holding something back, but it is hard to think they have that much in their pocket?
It would certainly no longer be a surprise if Aston Martin were the best of the rest behind Red Bull. A front row start for Alonso does not seem that unrealistic any more.
The top six finished second practice within 0.4sec of one another and the top eight was made up exclusively from drivers from Aston Martin, Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari. It would be nice to think that there is a degree of equality among them heading into qualifying.
Q1 begins at 3pm GMT, the first part of a three-part, hour-long session. Soon the time for mystery will be over. Let us not get too excited until the very end. We can surely wait until then?