Insight into Mercedes mood: “Hamilton upbeat - how Wolff works is incredible”
The 2023 F1 season got off to the worst possible start for Mercedes, with team principal Wolff left ruining his “worst racing day” and demanding a rethink over the W14’s concept.
The F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this weekend will come too soon for substantial changes but it’s not all doom and gloom at Mercedes, according to their third driver.
“In general, Mercedes has always proven to be one of the best teams to kind of bring upgrades and turn things around,” Schumacher, who joined the team for this season, said.
“And therefore, I think Lewis can be upbeat and positive. I’m a strong believer in the team, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have chosen this direction.
“Seeing how Toto works in his position is quite incredible, and I’m excited to see how the next few weeks are going to look because I’m sure it’s going to be very enlightening for me.
“Obviously, they’re in a spot that they don’t really want to be in. Because they’re used to a lot more, but the work definitely hasn’t stopped and it’s going to properly start now.”
Schumacher cut a glum figure in the paddock at the season-opening Bahrain GP where Hamilton finished fifth and George Russell seventh.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull won the first race of the year to begin his pursuit of a third consecutive F1 championship perfectly.
Schumacher does not expect Mercedes to fight Verstappen and Sergio Perez this weekend: “The Red Bull just looks super, super dominant. It looked really simple out there in some ways for Max and Checo.
“I don’t think that there’s reason to believe that we will be at their pace, but hopefully we will be closer.
“I think that everybody’s keeping the positivity high, everybody’s trying to really also focus on the positives, and really looking ahead to hopefully turning things around.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to football, to F1.
