Smiling Lewis Hamilton after the Grand Prix of Spain. Mercedes conquered an extremely important double podium, battling it out on the track in all respects with their real opponents on paper, namely Aston Martin and Ferrari. Also an internal challenge, with Russell igniting the enthusiasm of the 7 times world champion who begins to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Just him, at the beginning of the year was extremely critical, hard on his team.
These are the toughest years since he's been there but Mercedes is a united group and has tried to turn its weakness into a strength. She could have given up, but this is not the nature of the super titled team. For the second year in a row, she rolled up her sleeves and immediately looked for an alternative route. A way that you seem to have found in Barcelona where the updates that had been tested in Monaco officially debuted.
The aim for Hamilton and Mercedes is to constantly fight for the podium as there are not many occasions where a team other than Red Bull and Aston Martin has achieved it.
Hamilton: "Excellent result, slowly we go up"
Victory at the moment still seems too far away, given the dominance of Red Bull and Max Verstappen who just today scored victory number 40, at -1 from Senna. There are two generations colliding. We saw it especially in 2021 with one of the most exciting battles this sport has given us, but the will to win never leaves riders of the caliber of Lewis.
Speaking to the media after the race, Lewis, like Toto Wolff, admits that he is satisfied and ready for the next challenges to come. The gap with Red Bull is still a lot but we're starting to see a small light coming from afar. And a result like this can only be good for the negotiations for the renewal of the contract. Negotiations that Russell, as reported by Roberto Chinchero on Motorsport.com, he has already concluded, without too many announcements.
"The machine finally worked – proudly underlined the team principal – ma now we have to keep our feet on the ground because there is still a lot left on Max and today we had some favorable conditions for our car. There's still a lot of work to do, but we finally made a bold decision and saw that it worked.". Even Hamilton is of the same opinion, we cannot speak of a revolution but rather of an important progress.
“We didn't expect to get today's result – says Lewis, it's a success for everyone starting from the factory. We are all pushing hard and this allowed us today to get even closer to Red Bull, which is still far away. But we will try to follow them. I also want to compliment George. He's done a great job. I think Red Bull are still a bit too fast at the moment but we are working on it and we have beaten Aston Martin, this is a great first step" he added Hamilton and he hopes to get as close as possible this year to try again to fight for the title in 2024. Contract permitting.
