Toto Wolff: “For me, personally, it’s the worst weekend in 13 years.”
The words are unleashed for the team principal of Mercedes. After a very complicated weekend for the German team, its boss Toto Wolff makes a damning assessment of his team. Lewis Hamilton no longer hides his desire to switch to next season's car.
Toto Wolff, director of the Mercedes team, described the São Paulo Grand Prix as the team’s worst weekend in 13 years. In a press conference, the Mercedes boss doesn’t mince his words when discussing his team’s performance in this São Paulo Grand Prix. “I think sprint weekends have not been our strong point,” he declared, following what he referred to as an inexcusable performance.
Indeed, during a sprint weekend, only one free practice session allows teams to test their vehicle and make the optimal adjustments for the race. This short timeframe played a bad trick on Mercedes, as they struggled technically in São Paulo. The only solution to make new adjustments to the car is to do it during the Parc Fermé, which results in starting from the pit lane.
Toto Wolff explains that Mercedes preferred not to choose this option. « We fundamentally didn’t know where we would have changed something because there is a much bigger issue. We thought about it. But when you think about maximizing points, it was probably good not to do it ».
« This shows how difficult the car is, it’s on the edge. We need to improve on this for next year because it’s not possible to finish on the podium as one of the two fastest cars in just seven days, and then be nowhere », referring to the last Grand Prix in Mexico, before adding, « But this still doesn’t explain what went wrong. I mean, the car was almost driving as if it had three wheels instead of four ».
A rather lackluster outcome, with only two races left in the season. Hamilton, a seven-time champion, could only manage to finish eighth, struggling with major rhythm issues, while Russell was forced to retire after being affected by the rise in engine oil temperature, while still fighting for points in ninth place.
For Hamilton, in the last two races, we have been delighted to make progress, which has been really positive to see. […] Then, you arrive at another circuit and you have the worst degree you’ve had in a long time, so you simply don’t know what to expect. The British driver is just looking forward to the end of the season. Just a few more races with this car and it will be over, so I will be happy. This year, I’m simply counting the days.
For Russell, the observation is, “Clearly, we had something that wasn’t right this weekend, but we’re still not sure what it is. The pace just wasn’t there,” said Russell. “We thought yesterday could have been a one-off race, but it clearly wasn’t the case. […] Twelve months ago, it was our best performance of the year, but now, twelve months later, it’s by far our worst performance of the year, so very strange,” says Russell. “Last year, he won this same Grand Prix, just ahead of Hamilton.”
