Mercedes can still win a Grand Prix this year, says Damon Hill – but only if there is a "crazy race" before the end of the season.
Six races remain on the 2022 calendar, and still the Silver Arrows await their first victory. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell have driven well and barely put a foot wrong, but their reliable car has been scuppered by a lack of pace and trouble with porpoising earlier in the campaign.
That performance deficit has left Mercedes unable to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari on the track. That has been a tough pill to swallow for a team used to dominating Formula 1 – their eight-year streak of winning the constructors' championship is about to come to an end.
While Ferrari might be vulnerable to Mercedes, given their reliability problems and penchant for an in-race strategy blunder this year, Red Bull look a long way ahead. Hamilton himself admitted recently that Max Verstappen and his team are almost "unbeatable" on current form.
But Hill still believes it is possible for Hamilton or Russell to finally break their duck for the season, before it is over. "Believe me when you're in that situation in the sport, you know, is pressures enormous from the media. But we're still asking the question Can Mercedes win race?" he told the F1 Nation podcast.
"Something will happen, we always get a crazy race somewhere between now and end of the year, there's going to be a crazy race and Mercedes could well pick up that win. That would scupper Max's chances of winning every single race to the end of the season. But we'll see. There's gonna be rain, one of them is gonna be wet, Suzuka is going to be wet!"
He also suggested that Red Bull could open the door for the Silver Arrows if they choose to give up development on their current car to focus their efforts on 2023. "If they don't do any more development now on this car, Ferrari and Mercedes will be all over them by time they get to Abu Dhabi," he added.
Hill also passed comment on Russell's debut season with his new employers. The younger Brit is 35 points ahead of Hamilton thanks to his remarkable record of top five finishes at every race this season bar one, while he has also picked up more podiums than the seven-time world champion.
"It's incredible," said Hill of Russell's achievements. "If he beats Lewis, his career is made. That's all he cares about. And also, both of them being British, he beats Lewis that's it as his career has been made. So that was his only emphasis – what he needed to do to beat Lewis, and that's what he's been doing."
