Are Mercedes shortcomings enough to derail their F1 title hopes?

Rewind to the aftermath of the Chinese Grand Prix, and it’s pretty understandable to have been fearing a Mercedes cakewalk to both Formula 1 world championships, such was the level of performance on display to kick off the year.

George Russell led home a Mercedes one-two in Melbourne, before it was Kimi Antonelli’s turn to deliver the same result in Shanghai, with the nearest non-Mercedes car – Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari – close to half a minute adrift.

If someone had told you that there wouldn’t be another Mercedes one-two in any race – including the Sprint – as we head into the final two races before the summer break, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t have believed them. I know I wouldn’t have. But that’s the reality.

Even if a 78-point advantage over Ferrari in the constructors’ championship remains relatively comfortable at this point, the drivers’ standings are less so. Hamilton sitting just 32 points off the lead at this stage of the season is far closer than many would have predicted, given it was a 66-point deficit only three races ago.

And, sure, we need to give some credit to Ferrari for the rate at which it has upgraded its car so far this season – with a step on the power unit front also appearing to be more pronounced at Silverstone last weekend – but it’s not the only reason the Scuderia is keeping Mercedes on its toes.

In Russell and Antonelli Mercedes has two drivers with clear title ambitions, for better and for worse. Bryn Lennon/Formula 1 via Getty Images

Mercedes has one problem that it knew it would face, and has embraced. Just like McLaren last season, the team is allowing its two drivers to fight for the drivers’ championship without picking a single name to back. Perhaps that seemed an easier decision to make pre-season, but as the reality kicks in, it’s still an admirable approach.

That reality is the two drivers can take points off each other, and in doing so allow the chasing pack to stay that bit closer. It helps if one driver emerges as the lead challenger from the rest of the grid – as Hamilton generally has in recent rounds – but even Max Verstappen was getting asked about the possibility of mounting a fightback post-Austria, prior to his retirement at Silverstone.

When you’re allowing the two drivers to fight in that manner, as well, there are always going to be tricky moments to handle. One might believe they’re not getting the exact same treatment as the other at all times, and doubts can creep in that start to risk the internal harmony.

There was a hint of such a scenario at Mercedes during the British Grand Prix weekend, when Russell started to outline a straight-line deficit to the other Mercedes-powered cars – not only Antonelli’s but also the McLaren pair – and had his post-qualifying spell with the media somewhat abruptly ended.

Come the race, there was another suggestion of a discrepancy from Russell, who said on team radio: “Well done for sticking in there, but let’s really try and get on top of this straight-line speed stuff. That was a very frustrating weekend otherwise; we got lucky.”

That led team principal Toto Wolff to respond immediately: “Yeah, George, I think straight line was OK in the race.”

Earlier radio messages between Russell and race engineer Marcus Dudley suggested there was still an issue to try and understand, but team sources sought to dismiss that, before Wolff similarly did so to the media.

“He had all weekend a straight-line issue,” Wolff said. “We couldn't see anything on engine power. It must have been down to some kind of mechanical situation. Definitely the data confirmed that he was down, but very difficult to identify [why]. That was much better [in the race] – we didn't see that anymore. But nevertheless, it's something we need to understand.”

Being down on top speed can be attributed to many reasons, but Russell’s continual raising of the situation suggests he doesn’t believe he had equal chance to fight during the Silverstone weekend, with reliability continuing to be a source of concern for Mercedes.

“Generally, we just had too many DNFs,” Wolff said. “It’s cost a second place and two victories. And for a constructor championship and a driver championship, that's something that we need to get on top of. Because that has been – other than the top car that we have, that we're driving – the predominant issue. So everybody at the factory is fully on it.”

It’s certainly an area that Ferrari has taken advantage of, with Hamilton effectively gaining 36 points over Antonelli courtesy of the 18 lost by the Italian in Spain and Great Britain. You could even argue that 25 points escaped Antonelli at Silverstone, and it just reduces the buffer that Mercedes has.

“I think we are such a performance organization,” Wolff added. “On the chassis and engine side, we want to squeeze everything out. I'd rather dial back a little bit something that is really good and fix some of the reliability gremlins, rather than running behind performance. So far, we've won seven races out of nine, and I'd rather have this than [be] slow and reliable."

The problem at Silverstone and Barcelona was Ferrari had a car that was at least capable of putting serious pressure on Mercedes, and in those situations the car has not held up in some way. So Mercedes cannot afford to throttle back too much in the knowledge that Ferrari is ready to take advantage at a number of venues.

You’d still rather have the Mercedes level of performance, but a run of both cars scoring just once in the past five races is threatening to develop from a tough spell into a trend. If it continues, it will only provide Ferrari with even more encouragement that it can pry those cracks open further and take the title fight deep into this season.