Lewis Hamilton thinks it's time for his Mercedes team to turn some of its focus onto building its 2024 challenger.
The Silver Arrows have been off the pace all year. And, despite the success of their recent upgrades, they remain some way behind runaway leaders Red Bull.
Damon Hill struggles to see how Mercedes will be able to catch the leaders. And the Sky Sports pundit recently suggested Hamilton's team should score badly on purpose to give themselves the best chance of competing with Red Bull in the future.
While Hamilton stopped short of saying the same thing, he agrees that focus has to be on the future. After finishing third at the Canadian Grand Prix, the Brit called for his team to start putting more development focus on next year's car.
"It's going to be a battle of development, I guess, over the rest of the season, said the seven-time world champion. "I reckon Max's team are already working on next year's car, so we need to take our eye a little bit off the ball and focus on next year also but yeah, happy to be up there."
His assumption about Red Bull was correct. Team principal Christian Horner admitted as much as he reacted to yet another victory for his outfit in Montreal.
"It's about finding that balance," he said when asked if his team will even bother to continue developing this year's car. "Obviously, because we have a lot less wind tunnel time we have to start thinking a lot about next year.
"We're spinning a couple of plates at the moment but, with the regulations being stable, whatever we learn this year we carry into next year as well. Of course, there are things that we'll keep bringing to this year's car, but a lot of the focus now back in the factory is already on next year."
But, referring to that cost cap penalty currently being served by Horner's team, Sky Sports pit lane reporter Ted Kravitz's response to that statement was to question how much of an impact the punishment has actually had. "They've already got the advantage with this year's car," he said.
"We're not even halfway through the season and already they can have the capacity and aerodynamic wind tunnel testing time – even considering the penalty for the accepted breach agreement on the cost cap – to concentrate on next year's car.
"So it's a virtuous circle, having such a good car this year. It might end up that the cost cap breach and the penalty of ten per cent less wind tunnel time that Red Bull had might end up not being a penalty at all. If they can start now on next year's car, then it's not a penalty at all, is it?"
