The great Mercedes turnaround

2023 looked like a write-off. Not anymore.

Mercedes has taken just eight races to flip their 2023 fortunes.

After finishing 5th and 7th at the opening race of the year in Bahrain, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said it was “one of our worst days in racing”. Lewis Hamilton said the team were “on the wrong track” and I even went as far as calling the team “the big losers”.

Fast-forward a few months and look at where they are now.

Mercedes were on the podium in the last two races, Spain and Canada, even though those two tracks have very different demands. This is a strong suggestion that the underlying performance of their car has significantly improved.

They now sit 2nd in the constructors’ championship - ahead of their chief rivals in 2023, Aston Martin and Ferrari.

“It’s been a great weekend,” Lewis Hamilton beamed last Sunday in Canada after he finished 3rd, slightly behind the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.

“To have this consistency and to be up on the podium once again here is fantastic,” he said.

While Hamilton did lose out to Alonso, his podium was cherished by Mercedes because the Canada track - with its low-speed corners - was not expected to suit their car.

“The car was quick on a circuit that we weren’t expecting to be that competitive,” George Russell said after the race.

“We took the fight to those around us.”

Hamilton’s joyous podium in Canada also came just a fortnight after Mercedes achieved a stunning double podium in Spain, a track which played to their strengths. Hamilton finished 2nd with Russell back in 3rd.

Interestingly, Russell started the race behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and managed to finish ahead of him. This was the only time so far in 2023 where a driver has beaten a Red Bull after starting behind it.

The results Mercedes achieved in Spain and Canada suggest big changes they’ve made to their car are working.

Remember, Mercedes unveiled a major upgrade in Monaco.

This saw them reveal newly designed sidepods, which departed from the previous “zero sidepod” design that they had been trying to make work since the start of 2022.

Monaco wasn’t really the race to determine whether the upgrade was a success, but the indications from the subsequent two races - Spain and Canada - are undoubtedly positive.

In Spain, they were the 2nd-quickest team behind Red Bull - and in Canada, they were on par with Aston Martin and Ferrari.

“We are on a positive trajectory,” Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said after Canada. “The update package clearly works well.”

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said that looking at tracks coming up, “we should have a car that can regularly fight for the top-three”.

The next six races will all be held at permanent, longstanding tracks in Europe. These are the Red Bull Ring, Silverstone, Hungaroring, Spa-Francorchamps, Zandvoort, and Monza.

Mercedes are typically strong at Silverstone and last year in Zandvoort, they were in with a shot at victory.

Hamilton said Mercedes still has work to do to add more performance and efficiency to their 2023 car.

“We are slowly chipping away at those ahead,” he said. “I do believe we will get there at some stage and we are going in the right direction.”

Quite the turnaround from a man who said Mercedes were “on the wrong track” just three months ago.

Still, Hamilton also suggested to Autosport that Mercedes need to switch their focus to 2024.

"I reckon Max's team are already working on next year's car, so we need to take our eye a little bit off the ball [this year] and focus on next year.”

It will be fascinating to see how Mercedes respond to that demand.