It’s been a rough year if you’re a Mercedes supporter since they’re having a bad campaign by their standards, so they’ll look to turn their fortunes around when the British Grand Prix is next on the Formula 1 calendar.
The seven-time constructors’ champs are currently off pace in the standings as they’re only the third best team at the paddock with their racers George Russell at fourth and Lewis Hamilton sitting at sixth.
Meanwhile, the tug of war for the world championship between Red Bull and Ferrari remains one-sided in favour of the former, so the Scuderia are facing immense pressure to deliver positive British Grand Prix 2022 results this weekend.
With a big weekend ahead of us, continue to read on below as SBOTOP brings to you the preview of this exciting event at Silverstone.
Mercedes relish opportunity to compete on home soil
Mercedes fared much better in the last two events as they had one driver taking a podium spot at P3, with Russell doing so in Baku and Hamilton getting his first of the season in Montreal.
It’s a big step forward for them and it should bode well heading to Silverstone, although team principal Toto Wolff and technical director Mike Elliott are tempering their expectations.
“We have to be honest with ourselves and say that at the moment we are just a little bit behind those frontrunners in Ferrari and Red Bull. And in a normal race I think it is going to be tough,” said Elliott.
“We’ve scored how many – four, five podiums this year. We’ve seen glimpses of performance that we have but it’s far away from our own expectations of ourselves,” added Wolff.
Elliott bared that there will be upgrades to the W13 to further address their porpoising issues that hounded them this term, hoping that they’ll get a similar performance that they had in Barcelona – if not better.
Off the paddock, it’s been a turbulent week for Lewis Hamilton as the home hero condemned three-time World Champion Nelson Piquet.
Piquet used a racial slur in Portuguese to comment about Hamilton, blaming him for his incident with Max Verstappen – who happens to be the lover of his daughter Kelly – at last year’s British Grand Prix.
The 69-year-old eventually issued an apology statement, but he is banned from entering the Formula 1 paddock.
In response, Hamilton implored that “old heads” like Piquet should no longer be given a platform to share their discriminatory opinions.
“It’s more than language,” Hamilton wrote on Twitter. “These archaic mindsets need to change and have no place in our sport. I’ve been surrounded by these attitudes and targeted my whole life. There has been plenty of time to learn. Time has come for action.”
No room for complacency if you’re Red Bull
Red Bull have been in this position last year when they entered the British Grand Prix with a 44-point lead in the constructors’ championship over Mercedes. However, after the race, it was cut to just six as Verstappen didn’t finish while Perez was at P16.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit will look to settle some unfinished business at Silverstone as they’re aiming for their first British Grand Prix victory since 2012.
“Silverstone was pretty tough for us last year. We went there with a healthy lead last year, we go in there again with one this year so it’s important to us to keep this momentum going,” said team principal Christian Horner.
History
The Silver Arrows have high hopes as they’ve won eight of the last 10 races here, with Lewis Hamilton responsible in all of those victories.
The last time a non-Mercedes driver won the British Grand Prix was in 2018 when Sebastian Vettel did it for Ferrari despite Lewis Hamilton taking pole.
Hamilton’s first British Grand Prix triumph was back in 2008 when he was still with McLaren. He was last year’s winner when then-frontrunner Verstappen crashed out following their collision during the opening moments of the race.
What are the odds?
The British Grand Prix 2022 odds are backing Red Bull to win since they’ve won all of the last six races. With Max Verstappen winning five of the last six, he enters this weekend as the huge favourite at 1.27, while teammate Sergio Perez is at 1.65.
Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. are not far behind since they’re pegged at 1.80 and 1.88 respectively, and they can definitely beat Red Bull if their car will hold up well.
On the other hand, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton are not to be counted out since they’re installed at 1.94 and 2.23.
Disclaimer: Odds are correct at time of publish.
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