Palmer: Mercedes has excellent opportunities in France

Former Formula 1 driver Jolyon Palmer sees Mercedes drivers as one of the contenders for victory in the upcoming French Grand Prix. In the author’s column, Jolyon argued his point of view.

Jolene Palmer: “Half of the season is behind us and the Mercedes drivers have not progressed beyond third place. The Silver Arrows, so strong in the last decade, under the new regulations, have built a machine that has fundamental flaws. The degree of swing on the straights suggests that the team is chasing its tail in an attempt to solve these problems.

It’s just incredible that with such problems the team has won seven podiums in eleven races, including the last four Grands Prix. Only Red Bull (14) and Ferrari (11) have more podiums, including wins.

In large part, Mercedes has so many podiums due to the fact that the contenders for the titles had a lot of retirements. As a result, the usual battle for fifth place turned into a battle for third place and the Mercedes drivers won it.

Not all Mercedes podiums are earned for sheer speed, but the team achieves such results thanks to its bulletproof reliability. And another funny feature of the season: in 2022, only Lando Norris took the podium from outside the top six – at Imola, the worst race of the season for Mercedes.

In 2021, after eleven races, more riders took the podium: the same Norris three times, Pierre Gasly, Sebastian Vettel and Esteban Ocon even won the first victory of his career in Budapest. And this despite the fact that the leaders had far fewer technical meetings last year. In 2022, the difference lies in the fact that Mercedes has become a reliable barrier between a few leading teams and everyone else.

However, there are already signs that Mercedes will soon return to the top. In Barcelona they said they understand the car better. George Russell even led the race and Lewis Hamilton had to bounce back after a puncture on the first lap. In Monaco, Baku and Montreal it was difficult to understand whether Mercedes’ pace in Spain was a single rise or real progress. However, this was due to the peculiarities of urban roads, on which all the car’s weaknesses appeared.

At the more famous track at Silverstone, however, the team with the following innovations looked like a contender for victory, although there is no doubt that issues hindering Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez and Charles Leclerc helped them do so.

Nobody expected Mercedes to be particularly strong in Austria – they did, but this was due to the unusual mistakes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell, who crashed their cars in the qualifying final. However, if we compare Hamilton’s speed on Sunday to Charles Leclerc’s speed on an empty track, the Mercedes driver showed a very close pace.

The next stage in France is one of the smoothest circuits of the season, consisting mainly of medium and fast corners. In the past the Mercedes car has always been fast in such conditions and this year in France the team has the best chance of winning, but for this they have to do something with their qualifying form.

This season in Spain, Silverstone and Austria, Mercedes had chances to win, but all three times they had to pay for themselves in the race, but it would have been different if Hamilton and Russell had started at the front.

So far, Mercedes’ race pace has been much better than qualifying pace. If they hope to win in France, they will need to improve by one lap on Saturday to secure a high starting position. It’s good when the race pace matches the pace of the leaders, but when you have to regain positions at the same time, as is happening at Mercedes at the moment, it’s hard to fight for the win. That has cost the team a chance in recent races.”