Mercedes: Ted Kravitz issues very frank prediction for Lewis Hamilton & co.

Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz has said it might not be until the start of the European season that we see Mercedes starting to properly challenge for Grand Prix victories with porpoising still an issue.

The new Formula 1 season kicked off in style with Charles Leclerc winning the Bahrain Grand Prix on Sunday afternoon, as Ferrari started their campaign with a fine one-two finish, profiting from the woes of Red Bull who suffered a double retirement.

Mercedes also benefitted from their 2021 rivals’ woes, meanwhile, as a 5th and 6th place for Lewis Hamilton and George Russell became a 3rd and 4th place by the time the chequered flag dropped.

Certainly, Hamilton would not have been expecting a podium finish at this early stage of the campaign given the Mercs’ struggles in testing and it does seem likely that they still have work to do before returning as genuine contenders for race wins, rather than relying on the misfortune of others.

Indeed, that said, Kravitz thinks it might not be until Imola – in a couple of races time – that we see Mercedes’ true potential this year:

“A thought on how long it will take them to sort out their ‘porpoising’,” he said during his ‘Ted’s Notebook’ programme on Sky Sports F1.

“The first question, is it circuit dependent? The answer is no – they had it in Barcelona, they’ve got it here.

“So it’s not something circuit dependent. When they go to Jeddah, it will just be the same or worse.

“Question two, do they understand it fully yet? No, they don’t.

“Which leads on to question three – if they knew, if they understood it right now and how to fix it, how long would it take them to get the new parts to the track? Hypothetically, say they did, then the answer to that seems to be a couple of