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James Vowles says Mercedes’ first objective at the Imola weekend is to “keep up” with their rivals’ developments and not allow the gap to the front to grow even bigger.

It is fair to say that 2022 is not shaping up to be Mercedes’ season.

After eight years of dominating the Formula 1 circus, the Brackley squad is fighting to even be in podium contention.

But despite just two P3s in three races, Mercedes are second in the Constructors’ and Drivers’ Championships, although George Russell admits that is “pretty crazy” and more down to other teams, most notably Red Bull’s poor reliability.

This weekend racing at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Russell and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton have the opportunity to score bonus points as Formula 1 hosts its first sprint race weekend of the championship.

That means there are additional points up for grabs with the top eight in the sprint race scoring points.

But while those would be nice for Mercedes, Vowles admits they have bigger issues to focus on – mainly getting on top of their W13’s issues.

The 2022 Mercedes driver is, as Hamilton put it, a “viper”, the car suffering with extreme porpoising that is forcing Mercedes to run at a higher ride-height than they wish to do costing them