Toto Wolff addresses Mercedes’ Achilles’ heel as the Austrian vows to make pitstop overhauls after slow Austin changes

Mercedes F1 team principal Toto Wolff is resolved to work on the team’s Achilles’ heel as two slow stops cost Lewis Hamilton a possible victory prior to his disqualification from the United States GP.

In what was the Mercedes W14’s most competitive outing, Hamilton was classified 2.2 seconds behind race winner Max Verstappen, who was nursing his RB19 to the finish. The deficit could have been overturned if the Silver Arrows squad had serviced Hamilton’s car quicker.

Lewis Hamilton’s two pit stops were timed at 3.6 and 3.4 seconds, which is almost a second slower than Red Bull’s two fastest stops recorded at 2.4 and 2.5 seconds. Toto Wolff acknowledged the loss in the pitlane and vowed to improve their pitstops.

“Our mindset in the last 12 years, we don’t need to be world champions in pitstops,” he said to motorsport.com. “We need to avoid very slow pitstops. And it’s coming to a situation now where we realize that it has got so competitive, and we just need to ramp up our game up there.”

For the last decade, Mercedes has never felt the need for quicker pitstops as they had a huge pace advantage. However, the team no longer boasts such superiority and feels the need to improve their stops.Toto Wolff also suggested the slower pitstops were due to the equipment and not the members of the pit crew.

“That’s in terms of equipment and science around it, and the way we are set up, to avoid 3 or 3.5 seconds pitstops because all of that played a part.”

In the post-race interview, Lewis Hamilton admitted that he may have been a little too slow during one of the pit stops, which made it more difficult for the other drivers and made the stop less than ideal overall.

In recent years, Ferrari and McLaren have also stepped up their pit stops, with the former currently holding the record for the fastest stop.

Toto Wolff comments on Lewis Hamilton’s disqualification.

Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes W14 had excessive wear on the plank after the race, so his second-place finish at COTA was revoked.Toto Wolff claimed that the technical infraction resulted from a bad set, but he acknowledged that the team could have performed better.

Setup decisions during a sprint weekend are always difficult with only an hour of free practice, and they become even more difficult when running a new package on a bumpy circuit like COTA. RacingNews365.com cited the Austrian
“Ultimately, none of that matters; others got it right where we got it wrong, and the rules are set in stone. Take it in stride, learn from it, and come back stronger the following weekend.

Lewis Hamilton was disappointed with the disqualification but was happy with the progress made from the upgrades.