Toto Wolff admits that Mercedes is lacking 10km/h of top speed this weekend
The Austrian spoke after a difficult first day of testing for Mercedes. He admits that the W14 has a deficit in top speed, which is costing him a lot of time on the ultra-fast Monza track.
Monza and its particular characteristics represent a unique opportunity in the season for Red Bull’s competitors to put an end to the Austrian hegemony. However, while Ferrari has shown competitiveness this weekend, notably in free practice 2, Mercedes is strangely lagging behind. The German team has not managed to set satisfactory lap times in the first two sessions.
The German team is therefore starting the last practice session without any certainty. Lewis Hamilton was only 17th in FP2 and was 1.4s behind Sainz’s Ferrari. George Russell, in 9th place, was also far off the pace of the Maranello cars (+0.8s).
Mercedes falls short on Friday
Quite upset after this second session, Toto Wolff appeared on the microphone of Sky Sport where he explains that the W14 has a real lack of top speed.
« The two drivers were not satisfied with the car. They had understeer everywhere, so they couldn’t take the turns correctly. The biggest obstacle was our pace, we were missing 10 km/h on the straight lines. Without DRS, we are competitive, but not with it.
The engineers at Mercedes had the evening to think about new adjustments before the final practice session. The goal will be to keep up with Ferrari and Aston Martin, the direct competitors for second place in the constructor’s championship.
Last year at the Italian GP, George Russell gifted Mercedes a podium finish (3rd place) behind the untouchable Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc. To hope for at least the same result, the German team will have to find solutions to improve their top speed, a crucial criterion for performing well in Monza.
