F1: ‘Chaos and panic’ in the Mercedes F1 factory

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Lewis Hamilton threw the team’s engineers under the bus for sticking with their ‘zero-pod’ concept which failed to match the pace of their rivals last year and has urged for quick changes.

Bridgestone engineer Kees van de Grint senses ‘chaos and panic’ in the Mercedes factory as they race to bring out upgrades.

He told the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com: “I liked that they stuck to their original concept. They had faith in that. Now you probably think it’s not such a good concept after all.

“Then I think, what did you discuss and analyse in the winter?

“Because this is a late conclusion, if you have to change now and want to change a whole concept.

“That might say something about the people who left. I think the sounds are more in the panic atmosphere.

“You can also hear that from Wolff, he has actually already given up.”

How different the Mercedes car will look in Baku his weekend is unclear after Hamilton was sent a reality check by the extent of the upgrades made and suggested that there won’t be a new concept in Azerbaijan next week. Meanwhile, Wolff issued an encouraging update and said that the team were on the ‘right trajectory’ from what he has seen at the factory.

Van de Grint has a theory that Mercedes might not be about to make wholesale changes to their car and Wolff’s admittance over the concept might be ‘a feint’. He added: “But, that is of course also a bit of a feint because he (Wolff) quietly hopes that things will work out somehow.”