The F1 World Championship reaches its halfway point next Sunday with the celebration of its 11th race from a total of 21. The place, Hockenheim in Germany, home of  Mercedes, a welcome coincidence for the scuderia, which is not going through one of its best moments:

“Going to Hockenheim always feels like coming home; it’s only about a 90 minute drive from the Daimler headquarters in Stuttgart” – declared Mercedes’ executive director Toto Wolff – “While we had the great opportunity to race in front of many of our colleagues from Brackley and Brixworth in Silverstone, we’re now looking forward to welcoming the German members of the Mercedes family to the circuit and to holding high the three-pointed star on home turf.”

The German scuderia however, has not reached the middle of the championship with the advantage that they normally do. Hamilton is currently eight points behind Sebastian Vettel whom, being German himself, will also receive the support of his compatriots this weekend. Mercedes is also 20 points behind Ferrari at the constructors’ standings.

The fastest car

Mercedes, the favorites until now, have fallen behind because of a combination of bad luck and strategic mistakes. They have often found themselves limiting damages, which they have done brilliantly considering the circumstances, rather than shining, as they normally do.

Hamilton won the first of the feared triple-header at the FrenchGP. In Austria, however, he had to retire and he only managed second in Silverstone, despite starting all three races from the pole. The silver arrows only combined 61 points during the three back-to-back races, against the 98 accrued by Ferrari and the 65 of Red Bull.

Despite Ferrari’s advantage and their proven race-start superiority, Toto Wolff has confidence in his team, and his winning chances. Wolff is also hoping that this Sunday’s Grand Prix will be their chance to take the lead back from the Italians and, most important of all…he knows they still have the fastest car of the grid:

“We didn’t score as many points in the triple-header as we had hoped for. A lot of that was down to our own mistakes, however, there is a silver lining to this (…) we still scored a good amount of points, both drivers have shown strong performances and we have the fastest car. So there are many reasons why we’re looking forward to the second half of the 2018 season.”

Classification 

1) S. Vettel – Ferrari – 171 puntos – 4 victorias – 6 podios

2) L. Hamilton – Mercedes – 163 puntos – 3 victorias – 7 podios

3) K. Raikkonen – Ferrari – 116 puntos – 0 victorias – 6 podios

4) D. Ricciardo – Red Bull – 106 puntos – 2 victorias – 2 podios

5) V. Bottas – Mercedes – 104 puntos – 0 victorias – 4 podios

 By T.C. – Photo: www.mercedesamgf1.com