Mercedes F1 team wants increased gap in Spanish GP
The Mercedes Formula 1 team has set its sights on having a bigger advantage over its rivals in the Spanish Grand Prix than it has enjoyed so far this season
Although Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg have been in a class of their own in 2014 - winning all four races - their bosses are adamant that the team cannot be comfortable with its form.
And ahead of a Spanish GP where every team will bring upgrades, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff says that just staying ahead of the opposition will not be good enough.
"Our aim must be to increase the advantage we enjoyed at the last race in China," said Wolff.
"We have seen already that our rivals are relentless in their efforts to close the gap.
"As a team, it is up to us to rise to that challenge: to take that relentless mentality to an even greater extent than those around us.
"If we are to build a sustained level of success in this sport, any small advantage must be seen as a platform upon which to build a bigger advantage."
DOMINANCE COULD END QUICKLY
Wolff has long believed that Mercedes' advantage at the front of the F1 field is not as great as some have suggested.
Speaking to AUTOSPORT after the Chinese Grand Prix, he reckoned that the German car manufacturer's dominance could come to a very swift end unless it kept pushing hard with development.
"I believe that this is an exceptional run and you cannot take it for granted," he said,
"In a couple of years we will be looking back and saying that was really great - four races in a row and three doubles in a row.
"But we have to keep our feet on the ground, and concentrate on developing the car further.
"You could see in China that some of our competitors were strong in some of the stints, and we have to analyse why that was not the case for the whole race.
"[Fernando] Alonso was strong in the first and second stint, and [Daniel] Ricciardo was strong at times.
"Plus it is still difficult to overtake, so when you get it wrong you can quickly end up in a situation where your comfortable lead is not a lead any more.
"You don't want to be caught on the back foot. So the kind of spirit we are trying to maintain is that we are not having a comfortable lead."
Silverstone restores centre access for 2014 British Grand Prix
Ex-Ferrari Formula 1 mechanic Nigel Stepney killed in road accident
Norris had to adjust to 2022 McLaren F1 car that was "very unsuited for me"
Lando Norris believes he has done a “reasonable job” adjusting to the 2022 McLaren Formula 1 car that is “very unsuited” to his driving style.
Top 10 Arrows F1 drivers ranked: Hill, Warwick, Fittipaldi and more
No Formula 1 team has started more races without winning one than Arrows, although it came close on several occasions. Twenty years on from the team's demise, Autosport takes on the task of ranking its best drivers
How Storm Eunice delayed Mercedes' F1 porpoising alarm
Mercedes only got a full grasp of how severe its porpoising issues were in Formula 1 pre-season testing after Storm Eunice impacted its first 2022 car shakedown at Silverstone.
When Indycar conquered F1 - Monzanapolis
Imagine a race between the best of Formula 1 and Indycar drivers.
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…
Could F1 move to a future beyond carbonfibre?
Formula 1 has ambitious goals for improving its carbon footprint, but could this include banishing its favoured composite material? PAT SYMONDS considers the alternatives to carbonfibre and what use, if any, those materials have in a Formula 1 setting