An excerpt from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the plight of Mercedes, so it could mean a lost year:

It's not just fourth or thirteenth place finishes like at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix that are giving the Mercedes drivers a hard time. Rather, it is real physical pain that torments George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

"It's sometimes the case that the drivers need an osteopath to get everything back in order," reveals team boss Toto Wolff. As if to show solidarity himself, he adds after the latest disaster for the eight-time Constructors' World Champion: "I'll take the lashing for that."

"Not worthy of a world champion"

Already over pit radio, he immediately made amends to Lewis Hamilton: "Sorry, I know this car is undriveable." Later, he added to the general bewilderment at the relegation of the proud German-British factory racing team: "It's not worthy of a world champion."

Ferrari in the distance, Red Bull outdistanced, stuck in midfield. In the first appearance of the new generation of racing cars in Formula 1 on European soil, the Silver Arrows are still lagging behind. Above all, they are bouncing. The aerodynamic phenomenon known as "bouncing" or "porpoising" in technical jargon plagues almost all constructors; it is a consequence of the ground effect principle introduced this season.

But most other teams manage to minimize this ups and downs. Red Bull Racing turned a similar disaster into a double win within two weeks with a quick overhaul of its aerodynamics.

Mercedes faces a lost year

Of all things, the previous industry leader seems far removed from such technical miracles. Instead of the announced revenge for the loss of the drivers' title, the communication is now dominated by slogans of perseverance. At the company's headquarters in Brackley in central England, there are fears that the malaise could drag on until the end of the year.
In the worst case scenario, Mercedes could be facing a lost racing year, as Ferrari recently had to accept in order to regenerate. But no one is thinking of giving up yet; mental strength has always been part of Mercedes' dominance.

The car only works in the wind tunnel

In principle, the engineers can guess where the cause of the unbalanced W13 lies. Mercedes brings a car to the start that virtually dispenses with sidepods. Extremely slim equals extremely fast, that was the calculation for success. It's probably right, but only in the wind tunnel. The car doesn't bounce there either.

On the track, however, the aerodynamic trick seems to turn into the opposite. The car also has the narrowest underbody of all the race cars, and downforce is generated underneath the car. A disillusioned Lewis Hamilton admits: "When I was asked during testing what would happen if the concept didn't work, I flatly denied it: This team is not wrong. But now we have to accept that we might have been wrong."

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