Wolff spots clue behind ‘awful’ Mercedes run

Toto Wolff believes that Mercedes may have identified a weakness in the W15 during the Japanese Grand Prix weekend.  

The team was unable to take advantage of an unconventional racing strategy, which Wolff criticized as “terrible.” 

Toto Wolff, who is the team principal of Mercedes, thinks that although there is a connection between track temperature and the performance of the W15 car, it is not the reason for his team’s slow start in the Japanese Grand Prix.   

Mercedes had expected an improvement in their performance this year with the introduction of a new car philosophy.  

However, after four rounds into the season, the team, who are eight-time Constructors’ Champions, seem to have regressed in comparison to their competitors. 

Last time out at Suzuka, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were unable to make use of an ambitious one-stop strategy, ending the race in seventh and ninth position respectively.

Speaking to media including RacingNews365, Wolff explained the biggest issue the team faced during the race in Japan.

“It was three degrees different in track temperature between stint one and stint two,” the Austrian remarked, when asked if it was correlation or causation behind the W15 performing better in cooler conditions.

“As much as I believe there is a relationship between our performance with the track temperature, I don’t think it was the reason for our awful performance in the first stint.

“It was trying to extend it to one stop, losing lots of time with the overtakes – more so than the track temperature.”

A limitation of the W15 spotted?
With just 34 points to show for its season so far, the Brackley-based team sits over 100 points behind championship-leading Red Bull – George Russell’s fifth place in Bahrain remains its best return, whilst the energy drinks manufacturer has sealed three one-two finishes.

Three years into the current regulations cycle, Mercedes appear no closer to understanding the most recent ground-effects F1 cars, nor how to extract the most out of its package.

Despite third and second place finishes in the previous two Constructors’ Championships, the team have fallen to fourth this season and is at risk of being overtaken by Aston Martin, who is just behind with 33 points.

When asked if he feels there is anything Mercedes had unlocked during the weekend in Japan that might be able to be carried forward, Wolff said: “I think that the car is so complex for us, in terms of the aero balance and the mechanical balance – these two need to correlate.

“Our progress in recent years has been stagnant, causing us to rethink our approach. 

Despite our sensors and pressure tabs indicating an increase of 70 points in downforce in a specific corner in Melbourne compared to last year, this has not translated into faster lap times, which is puzzling and calls for a different strategy.”   

“So where exactly is the restriction?   We were looking to check off certain criteria to see if there are any limitations we have identified, and I believe there are some limitations present.”