'Alarm bells' ringing at Mercedes F1 team, says Lauda
Niki Lauda says 'alarm bells' are ringing at Mercedes over the fact that its Formula 1 rivals have closed down on it in recent races


Having been totally dominant earlier in the campaign, Mercedes was beaten to the race win in Canada by Red Bull and then lost out on pole position to Williams in Austria.
But despite still appearing to have the fastest car, Mercedes non executive chairman Lauda says the team needs to react to the stronger challenges it has faced.
"The alarm bell is ringing that the competition is coming closer," said Lauda.
"But if the alarm bell rings in time you can do something.
"If you sit back, which we don't try to do, you miss out. So what we have to do is keep developing the car."
NOT HIDING ADVANTAGE
Fernando Alonso, who was the only non-Mercedes powered drivers to finish in the top seven in Austria, suggested after the race that the German car manufacturer has the pace to lap the entire field.
The Spaniard said: "They seem to use the maximum power on a few laps in the race and then they have so much advantage that they play a little bit.
"I closed with [Felipe] Massa at the end and then when I was close I think he pulled away. It was the same with [Lewis] Hamilton on the first lap.
"It is unbelievable the difference between the two cars. If they run with those settings they would lap everyone, but they cannot do it for the whole race."
Lauda sees things very differently though and insists that Mercedes is pushing as hard as it can to maintain its place at the front.
"We were fighting Williams [in Austria] and how far behind were they in the end? Six seconds or something.
"We were going flat out. We were not playing around at the front. They were fighting each other and the Williams was just six seconds away.
"Then look at Nico and Lewis. One would go quicker and then the other would respond, because they are fighting from beginning to end.
"They went full blast from start to finish, like all the other races. The other races we won by 49 seconds, but in Austria it was just six."

Pirelli says standing F1 restarts need more research
FIA explains how F1 standing restarts will work

Latest news
Castroneves: “Too early” to think about potential replacement by Blomqvist
Four-time Indy 500 winner Helio Castroneves says it’s too soon to consider Meyer Shank Racing might want to swap him to the IMSA squad and bring Tom Blomqvist over to IndyCar.
Why some DTM teams take out crash insurance but others gamble
The 2022 DTM season featured several major pile-ups and accidents, costing teams several hundred thousands in repair costs. While some had insured cars against such damage, others weren’t so well prepared…
Ricciardo: Australian GP buzz will tell me a lot about F1 comeback
Red Bull third driver Daniel Ricciardo says attending his home grand prix in Melbourne will likely tell him whether he wants to make a full-time comeback to Formula 1 or not.
Kirkwood admits he overdrove as an IndyCar rookie
Kyle Kirkwood admits he was overdriving at AJ Foyt Racing in 2022 and is expecting to rebuild his reputation at Andretti Autosport.
The pioneering F1 car that preceded Lotus’s terminal decline
In the hands of Ayrton Senna the actively suspended 99T would be the last F1 race-winning Lotus but, as STUART CODLING reveals, it was a complicated machine that caused more problems than it solved
How Tyrrell became a racing Rubik’s cube as it faded out of F1
Formula 1’s transformation into a global sport meant the gradual extinction for a small team determined to stay true to its low-budget roots. But Tyrrell would eventually be reborn as a world-beating outfit again, explains MAURICE HAMILTON, albeit in different colours…
Assessing Hamilton's remarkable decade as a Mercedes F1 driver
Many doubted Lewis Hamilton’s move from McLaren to Mercedes for the 2013 Formula 1 season. But the journey he’s been on since has taken the Briton to new heights - and to a further six world championship titles
Why new look Haas is a litmus test for Formula 1’s new era
OPINION: With teams outside the top three having struggled in Formula 1 in recent seasons, the rules changes introduced in 2022 should have more of an impact this season. How well Haas does, as the poster child for the kind of team that F1 wanted to be able to challenge at the front, is crucial
The Mercedes F1 pressure changes under 10 years of Toto Wolff
OPINION: Although the central building blocks for Mercedes’ recent, long-lasting Formula 1 success were installed before he joined the team, Toto Wolff has been instrumental in ensuring it maximised its finally-realised potential after years of underachievement. The 10-year anniversary of Wolff joining Mercedes marks the perfect time to assess his work
The all-French F1 partnership that Ocon and Gasly hope to emulate
Alpine’s signing of Pierre Gasly alongside Esteban Ocon revives memories of a famous all-French line-up, albeit in the red of Ferrari, for BEN EDWARDS. Can the former AlphaTauri man's arrival help the French team on its path back to winning ways in a tribute act to the Prancing Horse's title-winning 1983?
How do the best races of F1 2022 stack up to 2021?
OPINION: A system to score all the grands prix from the past two seasons produces some interesting results and sets a standard that 2023 should surely exceed
Who were the fastest drivers in F1 2022?
Who was the fastest driver in 2022? Everyone has an opinion, but what does the stopwatch say? Obviously, differing car performance has an effect on ultimate laptime – but it’s the relative speed of each car/driver package that’s fascinating and enlightening says ALEX KALINAUCKAS
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.