Difficult decision on philosophy Mercedes: 'They have to decide now'

That Mercedes has already gone down the wrong path in 2022 seems to be becoming more and more obvious. According to former F1 driver and analyst Karun Chandhok, Mercedes must now decide what to do with the car's base.

Wolff is done with it

Toto Wolff recognises that Mercedes has built a 'bad' car and that it might be advisable to start over. That is, the team may start looking at a new philosophy as the basis of the F1 car. Chances are the team will then look to top teams Red Bull Racing and Ferrari. Aston Martin did the same in the previous year and it seems to have paid off.

Chandhok says in the Sky Sports Vodcast that time is running out for Wolff's team and the analyst takes Aston Martin as an example: "They didn't have a good car, they threw aside their egos and threw away the time and effort they had invested. They came up with a copy of the Red Bull car in Barcelona."

Mercedes should take example from Aston Martin

The rivals criticised it a lot, but it was within the rules and it was allowed. According to Chandhok, the team gave up for the first part of the season but is now reaping the benefits. According to the analyst, Aston Martin's strength lies in the fact that the team has also learned to understand the copy of the Red Bull and has now been able to build on it.

Mercedes held on last year and may now, a year later, have to do the same as Aston Martin. Chandhok: "When I look at the timeline [...] Mercedes has to think whether they will throw away the first two years to get to year three tier in a short time. That decision has to be made now. The architecture, layout and concept does need to be set for all teams by April."

So the choice has to be made particularly quickly for Mercedes. Several noises are already coming from within the team that the W14 will soon look different. So there may have already been a decision by Mercedes to go in a different direction. In any case, we are going to see it soon.