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— Formula 1 (@F1) March 29, 2021 Mercedes F1 again pitted Hamilton early for his second stop to prevent the Dutch driver from performing his own undercut. Consequently, Verstappen was forced to maximize his current stint to gain an advantage towards the end of the race. 6.5m Followers, 20 Following, 8,346 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@mercedesamgf1). The Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team will start the last race of the 2020 F1 season from P2 and P3 on the grid 1:13 'This or That' with Valtteri Bottas!

Mercedes believes it is still lagging behind rivals Red Bull on outright car performance this year, despite the team leading both drivers' and constructors' championships after the opening two rounds of the season.

After seven consecutive years of title success, Mercedes looks set for its toughest battle for the championship since its period of dominance began in 2014.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen is one point behind Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' championship after winning Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, while Red Bull is seven points behind Mercedes in the constructors' standings.

Mercedes struggled for performance at the opening round in Bahrain, qualifying 0.4s off Verstappen, but still won the race thanks to a superior tyre strategy.

The team made progress at Imola, with Hamilton securing pole position, but a slow getaway at the start for the seven-time world champion saw Verstappen take the lead before Hamilton spun out of contention for victory while trying to put pressure on the Red Bull.

Trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin believes the Mercedes W11 is still a slower car than the Red Bull even though Hamilton went on to set the fastest lap as he recovered from ninth place to second following his spin.

'I like to think we could have put them under some pressure in the race,' Shovlin said. 'Whether or not we had the car to win, I don't know because I don't know how hard Max was pushing at times.

'But looking at the sectors Lewis was doing and where we were in the corners, we felt it was really close.

'But we are not going to walk away from this patting ourselves on the back, saying that we might have had the faster car by a small amount.

'We are walking away from here saying, we are not good enough and they will win the championship if we don't improve our car very quickly.

'That is our mindset, that we are still the ones chasing.'

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff believes Red Bull would have qualified ahead of Mercedes at Imola if its two drivers, Verstappen and Sergio Perez, had avoided errors on their qualifying laps.

'We are still having a deficit with the car,' Wolff said. 'We were on pole, but if Max had put in a decent lap we were probably 0.25s behind, maybe 0.3s.

'That is simply what the pecking order is at the moment.

'In the race it was very difficult to judge because of the circumstances, but we had a very good car today in the wet and in the drying up.

'We are slowly starting to understand it, but according to the data we still do not have a car and power unit that can match the Red Bull Honda.'

Mercedes have unveiled their 2021 title contender, the W12, releasing rendered images of the car they hope will carry the team to an eighth successive double.

Mercedes emerged as the team to beat in 2014, powered by its superior hybrid V6 turbo engine.

Taking the championship title away from Red Bull, Mercedes has gone from strength to strength with little sign that their rivals can stop them this season.

Last year Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas claimed 13 of the campaign’s 17 race wins, finishing 1-2 in the Drivers’ Championship with Mercedes taking the Constructors’ title.

Hamilton’s title success was his seventh with the Brit – the last of the drivers to commit to the 2021 championship – the favourite to make it number eight, and take the record, this season.

Mercedes is hoping its 2021 challenger, the W12, which draws heavily on last year’s W11, is the car that can continue their run.

Introducing the W12 🖤🥰 Get your first look at our 2021 F1 car! #WeLivePerformancepic.twitter.com/RiZEBTyarb

— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) March 2, 2021

The new car embraces a different livery with the Mercedes taking on a bit more of Ineos’ red and the Petronas blue while last year’s black is still the predominant colour, faded into the more traditional silver.

Mercedes F1 Twitter Verstappen

There are only few changes to the car, most notably to the floor with new rules governing downforce as Formula 1 tries to slow the cars in order to make the Pirelli tyres last for a third season.

As with their rivals’ cars, there is a majority carry-over from last year’s car with a freeze on development, teams only permitted two tokens to develop this year’s cars.

New aero regulation changes for 2021…so what's changed on the Mercedes W12? 🧐 #F1pic.twitter.com/uDlAtySZVv

— Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) March 2, 2021

Other changes that Mercedes are having to deal with are the new budget cap and also having less time in the wind tunnel than any of its rivals.

In a bid to level the playing field, Formula 1 has not only introduced a $145 million cap, but there is a new sliding scale that dictates the amount of time a team can spend in the wind tunnel and using CFD. The better the previous year’s results, the less time.

As such Mercedes’ championship success means the Brackley squad has had less of that fundamental asset, the wind tunnel and the CFD computers, compared to their competitors.

The Mercedes drivers in their 2021 kit 👌 #F1pic.twitter.com/HqAOo4Q5lf

Mclaren F1 Twitter

— Planet F1 (@Planet_F1) March 2, 2021

The new car will complete a shakedown run before hitting the track at pre-season testing on March 12.

Mercedes F1 Team

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