Damon Hill now thinks one team’s aero department is ‘missing a trick’ with their current F1 car

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Damon Hill has admitted that he thinks the Mercedes aero team might have been ‘missing a trick’ going into this season.

Hill was talking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast after a poor weekend for Toto Wolff’s team at Interlagos.

It’s hard to comprehend just how poorly Mercedes performed in Brazil last weekend.

Going into the race, Lewis Hamilton was aiming to chase down Sergio Perez in the driver’s standings and was only 20 points adrift.

He had made big strides towards the Mexican in his home country but his hopes of catching the 33-year-old were immediately dashed when he realised just how slow his car was in Brazil.

Hamilton clung onto two points in last Saturday’s Sprint Race with George Russell finishing an encouraging fourth.

However, their tyres were already falling away towards the end of that race on Sunday they really suffered the consequences.

Russell was forced to retire due to overheating issues with his car while Hamilton managed to hang onto eighth place with Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon chasing him down.

Damon Hill has admitted he’s worried about the aero team at Mercedes right now.

He believes it might be one of the key reasons why they can’t keep up with Red Bull this season.

Hill concerned about Mercedes aero team

Speaking about the Silver Arrows, Hill said: “On the Mercedes point, my anxiety is this. For a long time, Mercedes’s dominance really was down to their power unit.

“They had the best power unit for a very long time and the aerodynamics were always slightly different to Red Bull’s.

“And if you remember towards the end of their previous regulation’s formula, they persisted with their relatively flat-looking rake on the car, whereas Red Bull were absolutely huge.

“They led the way and everybody started following Red Bull with this very high rake, it looked like a rat running along the car, it had a very high back.

“But, Mercedes stuck persistently, or doggedly, they looked like they were running a different aero on their car in previous regulations.

“Along come a new set of regs, what I’m saying is, is the Mercedes aero department missing a trick here?

“And they’ve lost quite a few good aero people to other teams now as well over time.”

Mercedes fans will likely echo Hill’s worries about the aero department within the team, especially after losing key staff members.

Martin Brundle admitted they were ‘painful to watch’ at Interlagos although the freezing cold temperatures in Las Vegas should help with the overheating issues they suffered in Brazil.

Ultimately, Mercedes will know that they need to return to the drawing board ahead of 2024 if they want to challenge Red Bull.

Hamilton admitted he couldn’t wait until he never had to drive the car again and off the back of last weekend, that isn’t a surprise.