Hakkinen: Mercedes can ‘easily’ create three-way title fight

Having won the previous eight Constructors’ Championships, Mercedes entered the 2022 season as one of the favourites to retain their crown – but their early performances have been anything but title-winning form.

While they currently occupy second place both in the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships, they are largely there through the fault of others having failed to qualify higher than fifth in any of the opening three races.

It is not only they who seem to be struggling for speed as all Mercedes-powered cars are currently being outperformed by those with Ferrari, Renault or Red Pull Powertrains PUs.

Despite this, two-time former champion Mika Hakkinen believes Mercedes can still “easily” fight for the championship.

“Lewis [Hamilton] and George [Russell] are both doing a fantastic job for Mercedes while the team sort out their performance problems,” said Hakkinen in his column for Unibet. “That’s another reason why Red Bull need to fix their reliability issues.

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“This championship could easily develop into a three-way fight between those teams and Ferrari.”

Speaking after the Australian Grand Prix, Hakkinen highlighted Russell for praise following his podium finish.

“George drove a really strong race and that third place was very important,” he said.

Fastest out of the blocks in F1 ‘22 = @ScuderiaFerrari and @Charles_Leclerc

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