Mercedes in ‘no man’s land’, says Lewis Hamilton

IMOLA – Mercedes are in “no man’s land”, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton said on May 19 after finishing the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in sixth spot and 35 seconds behind Red Bull’s race winner Max Verstappen.

Teammate George Russell came seventh and Mercedes have fallen further behind in the Formula One constructors’ standings – fourth overall on 79 points while third-placed McLaren, who also use Mercedes engines, have 154.

“We are in no man’s land. There wasn’t much more for us to get today. It is where we are and we have to do the best we can and that is the best we could do today,” said Hamilton, the sport’s most successful driver of all time, who is moving to Ferrari at the end of the season.

Russell also referred to “no man’s land”, but said the once-dominant team were still “super motivated”.

“We have got to just keep pushing. The car was capable of P6 and P7, and that is where we finished.”

Team boss Toto Wolff felt Mercedes had taken a small step forward.

“Our closest competitors have also done so recently, but we have closed the gap to the front a little. We still have a lot of work to do and, of course, we are all frustrated finishing P6 and P7. There is more to come though, and it is all about making incremental gains,” said the Austrian.

Moving in the opposite direction are McLaren.

Lando Norris believes McLaren will be fighting regularly for race victories after narrowly missing out on his second win. The Briton, who scored his maiden triumph in Miami two weeks earlier, finished only 0.725sec behind Verstappen after a vain late charge.

“We’re now at the point where we can happily say we are in the position of Ferrari and Red Bull, and that’s what we have to get used to now,” he said.

“It’s frustrating and it’s painful! The team are doing a good job. We’re all doing a very good job, so it’s business as usual and it’s focusing on doing the same things. It’s just now we are fighting for first or second. So, it’s still a surprise to say it’s frustrating not to win but, after last weekend and the improvements we’ve made, it’s what we should start to expect.”

McLaren team boss Zak Brown said he felt the same way and forecast that the team would win more races with Norris and Oscar Piastri (fourth at Imola) in 2024.

“We have all the ingredients now. We’ve got a driver pairing that I would not exchange for anyone else and we can expect them to be winning more races this year,” he said. REUTERS, AFP