Mercedes chief reveals deadline for conceding defeat to rivals Red Bull and Ferrari

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Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin has suggested the Silver Arrows will accept defeat in their Constructors’ Championship defence if they fail to resolve their issues in the next two race weekends. Lewis Hamilton, in particular, suffered as Mercedes lost more ground on Ferrari and Red Bull in Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Both Hamilton and George Russell failed to reach Q3 in qualifying, and whilst the latter drove admirably to notch P4 on race day, Toto Wolff and Co. received the most damning reminder of their status on the grid yet. Hamilton was lapped by last season’s title rival and eventual race winner Max Verstappen as he finished in P13.

Mercedes now find themselves in third, 47 points behind leaders Ferrari and 34 points behind second-placed Red Bull in the standings. And Shovlin believes they must solve their problems in Miami or Barcelona across the next two race weekends if they’re to keep in touch.

He said: “We know where we are on performance right now, and we know where we need to get to. However, there are a couple of major issues with the car that, if we can fix, we can find a lot of that gap quite quickly, but time is getting critical now. We need to move forward in the next two races if we are to keep the leaders within any kind of reach this year.”

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Shovlin reserved praise for Russell’s drive in Imola after the young Brit, starting in P11, salvaged 12 points for an otherwise disastrous race for Mercedes. He paid particular homage to his start to the GP and his ability to transition from the wet conditions to the dry.

“A great drive by George saw us salvage some useful points for fourth place from what has otherwise been a thoroughly disappointing weekend,” Shovlin explained. “He made a really good start and managed the transition to dry very well.”

He added: “We had an issue with the front wing adjusters at the pit-stop and he ended up driving the dry stint with the wet aero balance. It was an impressive effort to keep Valtteri [Bottas] behind, but the understeer prevented him from being able to close down the gap to Lando [Norris], so he had to settle for fourth.”

Hamilton’s hopes of achieving a record-breaking eighth Drivers’ Championship this season are fading even more quickly. Given Charles Leclerc and Verstappen’s early dominance, he might feel his hopes of regaining his crown are already over.

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